MANILA - Real-estate loans (RELs) in the country grew by 37.65 percent in the first half of the year, as both loans for the residential- and commercial-property sectors posted double-digit expansions, latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.
RELs grew to reach P752.18 billion in end-June this year. This is about P205.72 billion higher than the P546.46 billion recorded in the same period last year. It is also about P47.83 billion, or 6.8 percent, higher than the P704.35 billion posted in end-March.
Commercial RELs, which account for 61 percent of the total REL portfolio, grew by about 51.63 percent to reach P457.98 billion in end-June, compared with P302.03 billion recorded in the same period last year. This is also P32.94 billion, or 7.75 percent, higher from the RELs seen in end-March at P425.04 billion.
Residential RELs, meanwhile, posted a 20.36-percent growth in end-June from the same period last year. From P244.428 billion in June 2012, this grew by about P49.77 billion to reach P294.2 billion this year. Residential RELs represent 39 percent of the total REL portfolio.
Despite the expansion, the non-performing real-estate loans ratio continued to decline in end-June, indicating that banks are exposed to lesser risks in extending RELS. Nonperforming loans (NPLs) are loans that remain unpaid about a month after their due date. They are also called soured or bad loans.
From the 4.43-percent NPLs in RELs seen in June last year, this declined to 3.2 percent in June this year. June’s NPL ratio is also lower than the 3.48 percent seen in the first quarter this year.
Commercial NPL ratio of RELs declined to 3.25 percent in June from the 4.79 percent seen in the same period last year and 3.47 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2013.
For residential RELs, the NPL ratio also declined from 3.99 percent in June last year and 3.5 percent in March this year to 3.12 percent in the first six months of the year.
The BSP expanded the real-estate reporting system to monitor the credit condition of banks and avoid the potential impairment of intermediation. The total real-estate exposure of Philippine banks—which include all types of RELs, as well as investments in securities to finance real-estate activities—in the first half of the year will be released by the central bank next week.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
