Construction down 4.3% in 2nd quarter

Private construction activity declined by 4.3 percent in the second quarter of the year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported over the weekend.

Data released by the NSO reflected a dip in the approved building permits nationwide to 26,563 during the second quarter of the year from 27,773 a year ago.

However, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Romulo L. Neri doubted the reported figures. "It seems to run against evidence we see. Buildings have been set up all over. We hope that construction will be properly reflected," he said in an interview.

"There seems to be a building boom in Metro Manila so we don’t know why… (data) has been showing (a fall in construction) based on building permits," he added.

The latest data reflected decreases in application for residential building construction and additions, alterations and repairs as residential building construction went down by 7.6 percent from 19,370 last year to 17,904 this year. Combined approved building permits for additions, alterations and repairs dropped by 19.3 percent from 5,405 to 4,364.

Comprising about 82 percent of the total approved building permits for residential building were applications for single-type residential units. This type of construction has a total of 14,684 approved building permits with a total floor area of 1.7 million square meters and an aggregate value of P10.7 billion.

The value of construction for residential building went down slightly by 3.6 percent to P13.3 billion from P13.8 billion. Likewise, combined value for additions, alterations and repairs declined by 8.6 percent to P2.4 billion from P2.7 billion during the same period of 2005.

On the upside, approved building permits for non-residential building construction improved by 42.3 percent to 4,295 from 2,998 in 2005. The value of construction for non-residential building increased by 48.2 percent to P15.6 billion in the second quarter of the year from P10.6 billion a year ago.

More than half or 70.2 percent of total applications for non-residential was for commercial buildings. This type of construction has 3,016 approved building permits.