Almost two in every five households had some form of debt, mostly in the form of outstanding loans and bills, 2018 data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.
Outstanding loans accounted for 28.2% of household debt, while household bills represented 17.1% and credit card bills accounted for 1.6%.
Most household loans were Pag-IBIG Fund and National Housing Authority housing loans, along with vehicle financing and business financing.
The 2018 Consumer Finance Survey released by the BSP on Friday said households choose loan providers based on interest rates.
“(The) bulk of reported interest rates by borrowing households were broadly low at 1-4 percent,” the survey results said.
“Households were able to manage their loans well as most were paid on time.”
At the time, around a quarter of households with outstanding loans used digital financial services for credit-related transactions.
The average monthly income for a household of five in 2017 was P15,000, with majority of households sourcing income from employment.
Only 5.1% of households did entrepreneurial work, while nearly half also had income from other sources, such as remittances.
Average monthly spending was P22,000, mostly for food.
Out of over 70% of households that own residential property, almost half owned both the house and lot while 26.2% owned only a housing unit. Almost nine percent owned other real property such as a land parcel or farm.
About nine in every ten (92.1%) housing units resided by households were either a single detached house (79.7%) or a single detached house with attached room (12.4%).
This proportion, although lower than that in 2014 (97%), was consistent with the estimate of the 2018 NMS (92%).
Only a few households were reported to be living in other types of housing units. Around 3.4 percent of households resided in a duplex while roughly the same percentage of households live in either a townhouse or an apartment (with less than 4 units) at 1.6 percent each. Meanwhile, less than one percent of households resided in either an apartment complex (with 5 or more units) or a high-rise condominium.
By area, a higher proportion of single detached houses were resided by households in the AONCR (93.2%), particularly in rural areas, than in the NCR (84.7%).
Apartments and condominiums proliferated in the NCR (10.2%), in contrast to the
limited number in the AONCR ( 1.2%).
Based on the 2007-2017 APIS reports, almost all households (around 90%) occupied single houses.
However, between 2014 and 2017, the proportion of households occupying this type of housing unit had declined (from 92.9% to 88.5%) while the proportion of those occupying an apartment, accessorial, condominium or townhouse had risen.
Despite the continued increase in the price of land in the NCR, demand for condominium units remained high, especially in 2018.
Source: BSP and BusinessWorld