IMF Assists BSP In Real Estate Assessment

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) assists the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in improving the indicators assessing the real estate and credit market conditions in the Philippines.

The IMF conducted a technical assistance mission in 2022 to assist the BSP with its property price statistic through an updated Residential Real Estate Price Index (RREPI) and the new Commercial Property Price Index (CPPI).

The RREPI and the CPPI are used as inputs into the design of macroprudential policies, including policies that aim to reduce systemic risks coming from excessive financial procyclicality, such as asset bubbles.

The IMF said the BSP decided to delay the launch of the updated RREPI and the new CPPI to evaluate a new methodology that would comply with international compilation standards and best practices.

Based on its technical assessment, the IMF recommended increasing team capacity with the methods through a training course or planning further technical assistance in the second quarter and the transfer of the processing and aggregation of data to statistical software by the fourth quarter.

In 2024, the IMF said the BSP should use the Inter-Agency Working Group on Property Price Statistics (IAWGPPS) to develop goals, build relationships, negotiate data access, and start a pilot project that will test the possibility of linking the Land Registration Authority (LRA) data with data from a single local government unit (LGU).

“To negotiate access to new data sources, the BSP plans to convene an IAWGPPS consisting of members from the BSP, the Philippine Statistics Authority, the LRA, and other government agencies,” the IMF said.

The technical assistance mission assessed available administrative data sources and recommended initial steps to evaluate the suitability for use in the production of the RREPI and CPPI.

“This work will take some time to progress and will involve a significant investment in terms of resources,” the mission said.

Data showed property prices in the Philippines increased in the third quarter of 2022, with the reopening economy and easing COVID-19 quarantine and lockdown protocols.

The latest Residential Estate Price Index (RREPI) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed an increase of 6.5% to 148.6 in 2022 from 139.5 in 2021.

Source: Philstar