Philippines property market 2026: prices, costs, FSBO

The Philippine market is cooling broadly, and the freshest official read makes that plain. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Residential Property Price Index rose 1.6 percent year on year for the fourth quarter of 2025, its slowest pace since early 2019, in the release published on March 27, 2026. Under that calm headline the segments diverge, but not in the way many assume: condominium prices rose about 3.5 percent year on year while house prices were essentially flat at around plus 0.1 percent. The broad condo index, in other words, was the firmer of the two, even as the overall market decelerated.

The real soft spot is at the very top of the condo market. Prime central-business-district luxury condos kept easing into 2026, with per-square-meter values slipping from about PHP 202,590/sqm in the third quarter of 2025 to roughly PHP 197,500/sqm in the first quarter of 2026, the third straight quarterly decline in that tier. So the picture is a cooling overall market, roughly flat houses, a broad condo index that is modestly firmer, and prime luxury CBD units as the single softest part of the market.

The national typical home price sits near PHP 3.6 million on a market-aggregator estimate, while the freshest monthly portal benchmark puts Metro Manila condo asking prices at PHP 192,469 per square meter in May 2026. Rolling those forward by the near-flat official trend, our nowcast for June 2026 is a national median around PHP 3.6 million and Metro Manila condo asking near PHP 192,000 to 194,000 per square meter, essentially unchanged from the May reading because the overall index is barely moving.

Our own read of live listings is deliberately a different slice of the market. Across 48 two-bedroom condos we sampled on a major portal on June 23, the median asking price was PHP 24.9 million combined, with Metro Manila at PHP 26.5 million (29 listings) and Cebu at PHP 22.7 million (19 listings). That number is far above the national median by design: the listings cluster in Makati, BGC, and Rockwell luxury towers and in Mactan beachfront, so per-square-meter medians ran about PHP 298,000 in Metro Manila and PHP 197,000 in Cebu. Treat these as prime urban inventory, not entry-level homes, and asking prices as the top of the negotiating range, especially given that the prime CBD tier is the part of the market that is softening.

The largest selling cost in the Philippines is not the agent. It is the Capital Gains Tax of 6 percent, charged on the highest of the selling price, the BIR zonal value, or the assessor's fair market value. On a PHP 6,000,000 sale that alone is PHP 360,000, and it lands squarely on the seller.

The broker's commission, when there is a broker, is 3 to 5 percent of the selling price and is customarily paid by the seller, with 12 percent VAT added if the broker is VAT-registered. Philippine law sets no fixed rate, so the figure is whatever the parties write into the authority-to-sell contract. On a PHP 6,000,000 home that fee is roughly PHP 180,000 to 300,000. Notarial fees run about 1 percent but are often a flat charge or shared with the buyer, and you will want your own lawyer for the Deed of Absolute Sale and the closing.

The other transfer taxes fall on the buyer by custom, though everything here is negotiable. The buyer typically pays the 1.5 percent Documentary Stamp Tax, a local Transfer Tax of up to 0.75 percent, and registration fees of roughly 0.5 to 1 percent. Put it together and a seller without a broker faces roughly 6.5 to 7 percent of price all-in, almost all of it the Capital Gains Tax. Bring in a broker and the seller side rises to about 9 to 12 percent.

Selling for sale by owner is fully legal in the Philippines and reasonably common. Only paid third-party intermediaries must hold a PRC broker license. An owner selling their own property does not, so individual owners routinely market directly through online portals and Facebook community groups to save the 3 to 5 percent commission. In our June sample we saw exactly that: a Mandaue condo tagged "buy direct from owner, no commission" at PHP 17.38 million.

The portals carry both brokered and owner-direct ads, and "direct listing" or "no commission" tags show up alongside agency inventory, so the exposure gap that hampers private sellers in some markets is smaller here. Anyone.com adds one more owner-direct outlet with no commission, and nothing stops the portal ads carrying your no-commission tag from running beside it. The practical work an owner takes on is pricing against comparable sales, fielding inquiries, and screening buyers.

The honest framing is that a private sale in the Philippines saves the broker commission, roughly PHP 180,000 to 300,000 on a PHP 6,000,000 home, but not the 6 percent Capital Gains Tax, which you owe either way. The harder part is the paperwork. The Deed of Absolute Sale, the Capital Gains Tax and Documentary Stamp Tax filings with the BIR, and the title transfer at the Registry of Deeds all have to be done right, so most owner-sellers still hire a lawyer or a liaison to handle the closing even when they skip a broker.