The Philippines Approved 9,805 Residential Building Permits in July, 6.7% Fewer Than a Year Earlier

Philippine local authorities approved 15,890 building permits in July 2026, down 1.2%. Residential permits fell 6.7% to 9,805 while their value rose 2.3%.

Philippine local authorities approved 15,890 building permits in July 2026, 1.2% fewer than in July 2025, according to the construction statistics the Philippine Statistics Authority released on 16 September 2026. The total value was 47.22 billion pesos, down 0.9%, covering 3.49 million square metres of floor area, down 5.7%.

The residential half of that total moved differently from the headline, and the difference is the story.

Fewer residential permits, more residential money

Residential permits numbered 9,805, or 61.7% of all permits, a fall of 6.7% from 10,511 a year earlier. Their combined value was 20.79 billion pesos, or 44.0% of the total, and that figure rose 2.3% from 20.33 billion. Residential floor area fell 5.2% to 1.59 million square metres.

So the country approved fewer homes, covering less ground, worth more money. Each of the three series is measuring the same permits, which means the average approved residential project in July 2026 was both smaller in area and more expensive than the average a year earlier. Construction costs explain part of that; a shift toward denser or higher-specification projects would explain the rest.

The detached house dominates the count and not the value

Single-type houses accounted for 8,274 of the residential permits, 84.4% of the residential count. They carried 12.36 billion pesos of value, 59.4% of the residential total.

That leaves the remaining 15.6% of residential permits carrying 40.6% of the residential money. In a market where the detached house is overwhelmingly the unit of approval, the value is concentrating somewhere else.

Non-residential is the exact mirror image

Non-residential permits rose 7.9% to 3,662, but their value fell 7.7% to 20.48 billion pesos and their floor area fell 6.6% to 1.83 million square metres. Commercial buildings made up 2,431 of those permits, 66.4% of the non-residential count, worth 8.03 billion pesos.

Residential: fewer permits, more money. Non-residential: more permits, less money. The two halves of Philippine construction are running in opposite directions on both counts at once.

The smaller categories all grew in number. Additions rose 15.6% to 504 permits worth 0.68 billion pesos, up 11.5%. Alteration and repair rose 4.2% to 1,287 permits worth 4.42 billion pesos, up 27.3%. Other construction rose 25.9% to 632 permits, though its value fell 19.2% to 0.85 billion pesos.

What we publish about the Philippines, and what we refuse to publish

This is a market where our own row is mostly an explanation of an absence, and we would rather set that out than fill the gaps.

We publish no price per square metre for the Philippines. The central bank issues its residential property price index as an index number with no price level attached, and the per-square-metre averages produced by market consultancies sit behind paid reports. An index cannot be turned into a price level without an anchor, and we do not have one we can stand behind.

We publish no rent level either, and therefore no gross or net rental yield. Philippine market firms publish yield percentages and price bands rather than an average rent figure, and a yield taken from someone else's price is not a yield for our price.

What the row does carry is worth having. Prices are up 4.5% over twelve months in pesos but down 4.8% in US dollars, because the peso lost 8.9% against the dollar over the same period. A foreign buyer's return in the Philippines this year has been decided by the currency rather than by the market. Round-trip transaction costs are 14.1%, among the highest in our coverage, and the effective tax on rental income is 25%. Our bubble score for the Philippines is 42, in the moderate band.

The ownership rule matters more here than in most markets: foreign buyers may hold condominium units freehold, subject to a cap of 40% of a building, and may not own land.

Sources: Philippine Statistics Authority, Construction Statistics from Approved Building Permits, July 2026, released 16 September 2026 https://psa.gov.ph/statistics/construction/pcs/node/1684084180

Market data: Philippines