Building Permits Rise 34 Percent in 4th Quarter of 2002

Construction activity appears to be picking up again. The total number of building permits approved by the government increased by 34 percent to 22,497 in the fourth quarter of 2002 from 16,804 during the same quarter in 2001.

In its Private Building Construction Statistics, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said that the number of permits approved for the construction of residential buildings went up by 35 percent to 15,545 in the fourth quarter of 2002 from 11,547 a year earlier while the number of permits approved for the construction of nonresidential buildings increased by 30 percent to 2,634 from 2,022. The number of permits approved for building additions, alterations and repairs rose 33.5 percent to 4,318 from 3,235.

Residential buildings refer to establishments with more than half of their gross floor area built for dwelling purposes. They are categorized as single type, duplex, apartment and/or accessoria, and residential condominium. Nonresidential buildings refer to commercial, industrial, agricultural, and institutional buildings.

The permits cover the construction of 1.9 million square meters of residential floor area and 1.1 million square meters of nonresidential floor area. Floor area refers to the sum of the area of each floor of the building measured to the outer surface of the outer walls including the area of lobbies, cellars, elevator shafts, and all communal spaces in multi-dwellings. Areas of balconies are excluded.

Most of the building permits were issued in Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon. Among the provinces, Cebu, Laguna, Quezon, Bulacan and Davao del Sur reported the highest number of approved permits.

The total value of construction also increased by 8.5 percent to P17.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2002 from P16.1 billion a year ago. In particular, the value of construction of residential buildings went up by 43 percent to P9.5 billion from P6.6 billion. The value of construction of nonresidential buildings, however, dropped by 19 percent to P6.3 billion from P7.8 billion. The total value of additions, alterations and repairs of buildings went up by 1.4 percent to P1.63 billion from P1.61 billion.

The construction of each square meter of residential buildings cost around P4,889 in the fourth quarter in 2002. Meanwhile, the average cost of construction of a square meter of nonresidential buildings was estimated at P5,518.