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MANILA, Philippines — A typical family in Metro Manila would need nearly 20 years of its entire income to afford a median-priced condominium unit, a new regional housing study found, underscoring how difficult homeownership remains for many Filipinos.
In 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. pledged what he described as an “aggressive housing program” to address the country’s housing shortage, saying the government was aiming to build “1 million low-cost and socialized homes a year.”
An analysis by University of the Philippines Diliman professor and Inquirer data scientist Dr. Rogelio Alicor Panao of the 2025 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Asia Pacific Home Attainability Index found that the Philippines remains among the least affordable housing markets in the region.
The report, which covered 41 cities across 11 Asia-Pacific countries, showed that Metro Manila’s median condominium price stood at $176,936 — about 19.8 times the median annual household income of $8,957, according to Panao’s analysis. The ratio is far above the commonly used affordability threshold of five times income.
