High-rise condos to address Philippine housing crisis, plus other updates

For PropertyGuru’s real estate news roundup, according to Philippine urban planners, vertical housing helps ensure more affordable housing options for the urban poor while offsetting high land costs. In other stories, property insiders celebrate a new agreement which allows private sector specialists to access data from Cambodia’s land registry records, thus increasing investor confidence. Lastly, Thai condo transfers to Myanmar buyers ranked second after Chinese purchasers for the first nine months of 2024.

High-rise condominiums to address PHL housing crisis, urban planners say

Urban planners say vertical housing helps ensure more affordable housing options for the urban poor while offsetting high land costs. “From a larger urban perspective, vertical housing makes the provision of urban services more cost-effective,” Joel L. Luna, principal at Joel Luna Planning and Design, said in an e-mail to BusinessWorld. “Bringing more people together in a compact land area reduces the per capita cost of providing utilities, infrastructure, roads and other services compared with a sprawling development,” he added. The Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Housing Program, a flagship project of the Marcos administration, seeks to build 3.2 million housing units by 2028. The program will focus on building in-city, high-density/vertical housing units using idle state lands and backed by government financial institutions.

New access to ministry data tipped to drive Cambodia’s real estate growth

Real estate insiders are celebrating a new agreement allowing private sector specialists to access data from land registry records. The insiders believe this will ensure that land valuation services in Cambodia become more precise and trustworthy, thus increasing investor confidence. Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning, and Construction Say Sam Al met with the Cambodian Valuers and Real Estate Agents Association (CVEA) leadership on 8th January. According to The Phnom Penh Post, the minister agreed to allow the CVEA to access and extract certain data regarding registered land plans, which will then be used as a basis for real estate valuation or to verify recorded transactions. The CVEA issued a social media statement explaining how clearer valuations will help create stability and consistency, benefiting individual customers and the Kingdom’s economy.

Myanmar no.2 for Thailand condo sales

Thai condo transfers to Myanmar buyers ranked second after Chinese purchasers for the first nine months of 2024, overtaking Russian buyers as the neighbouring government’s crackdown on Thai condo purchases subsided. Surachet Kongcheep, head of research and consultancy at property firm Cushman & Wakefield Thailand, said Thai condo sales to Myanmar buyers resumed after a brief pause following the Myanmar government’s crackdown last April. “The impact of the crackdown on Thai condo purchases by Myanmar buyers was a temporary market disruption,” he said in Bangkok Post. Thai condo transfers to buyers from Myanmar will set a new record in 2024 as the total for the first nine months already surpassed the record set in 2023.

The Property Report editors wrote this article. For more information, email: [email protected].