MikeLigalig.com

by PNA - The Philippines’ real estate sector continues to grow as shown by the record-high level exposure of universal and commercial banks (U/KBs) and the thrift banks to the sector in the first quarter of 2012.

Data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Friday showed that combined exposure of U/KBs and TBs to the real estate sector surged by 21 percent year-on-year to P538.1 billion from year-ago’s P444.9 billion. Against the previous quarter’s P518.6 billion, the increase stood at 3.8 percent.

The central bank attributed the expansion in the banks’ real estate exposure to the 9.9 percent or P18.3 billion increase in banks’ investments in securities issued by real estate companies, and the 3.6 percent or P18.3 billion jump in real estate loans (RELs).

In actual value, RELs accounted for the bulk at P524.1 billion or 97.4 percent of the total while the balance of 2.6 percent is accounted for by investments in securities issued by real estate companies at P14 billion.

U/KBs held the bulk of the exposure at 76.9 percent or P413.9 billion and the remaining 23.1 percent or P124.2 billion is with the TBs.

The central bank said residential RELs fuelled the growth in total RELs as of last March at P11.7 billion while commercial RELs reached P6.5 billion.

Over-all, commercial RELs remain to have the bigger share at 55.6 percent amounting to P291.5 billion while residential RELs’ share reached 44.4 percent or P232.6 billion.

The RELs of U/KBs’ are largely extended to commercial purposes at 67 percent amounting to P267.9 billion while those for residential purposes accounted for the balance of 33 percent or P132 billion.

On the other hand, residential RELs held the bigger share of TBs’ RELs at 80.9 percent or P100.5 billion while the balance of 19.1 percent amounting to P23.7 billion are for commercial purposes.

The central bank cited that amid the expansion in RELs, its proportion to the banking sector’s total loan portfolio, exclusive of interbank loans remains “stable” at about 14-15 percent.

As of last March, the banking sector’s RELS to TLP ratio stood at 15.2 percent, higher than the previous quarter’s 14.5 percent after TLP went down by 0.9 percent.

Non-performing RELs went up by 5.5 percent or P1.4 billion to P26.8 billion from last December’s P25.4 billion, thus, the non-performing RELs ratio rose to 5.1 percent from quarter-ago’s five percent. However, the latest RELs ratio is lower than the 6.1 percent in March 2011.

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