Tiny condo or home outside Metro Manila?

Home buyers are looking at investing their hard-earned money in houses outside Metro Manila instead of spending nearly as much for just a studio-sized residential condominium unit in the capital region, according to Leechiu Property Consultants (LPC).

For the price range of P6 million to P8 million, LPC director for research and consultancy Roy Golez tells the Inquirer that a home buyer can acquire a 50-square-meter (sq m) house and lot in Cavite, Laguna and Batangas. This already includes a two-storey home with two bedrooms.

However, in Metro Manila, the same amount can only purchase a 20-sq m studio unit, he estimates.

“The total price for a house and lot there, let’s say a small house and lot, compared to a condo, is almost one is to one,” Golez stresses.

Even though these home buyers work in Metro Manila, he observes they would still prefer living outside the region for a bigger space.

Golez says some of them won’t mind dealing with traffic going in and out of Metro Manila for work. It also helps that they are also just working from home on certain days, he adds.

This observation is also in line with the growing preference for single detached houses. LPC’s latest monitoring shows that the majority or 47.9 percent of the home loans extended during the second quarter went to this type of property.

The property experts also note that the population in Cavite, Laguna and Batangas is expected to grow to 12.05 million by year-end as more residents move in these areas. The projection is 2.49 percent higher than the 2015 figure.

Golez, in addition, says the development of tollway infrastructure in these provinces, such as the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax), also attracts more residents. 

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Calax is a 44.57-kilometer expressway starting at Centennial Road, Kawit, Cavite and ending at the Greenfield property in Biñan, Laguna. 

By the first quarter of next year, the Governor’s Drive interchange—part of the Cavite segment—is set to be completed. This 7.8-km portion is seen to decongest traffic on major roads in Cavite such as the Aguinaldo Highway in Silang.

The other two Cavite interchanges, Open Canal and Kawit, are expected to be finished by the third quarter of next year. 

The Laguna segment of Calax is fully operational. These comprise Silang (Aguinaldo), Silang East, Sta. Rosa, Laguna Boulevard and Laguna Technopark interchanges.