The rise in construction costs has been one of the main factors (Photo: External source).
SANTO DOMINGO – Affordable or low-cost housing has seen the greatest increase in recent years in the Dominican Republic. The various housing unit categories have experienced up to a 36% increase, according to the Ten-Year Housing Plan (PDV) prepared by the Ministry of Housing, Habitat and Buildings (Mivhed).
The study details that during the period 2019-2021, housing prices in the country accumulated significant increases. “Analyzing by type of housing construction, similar increases are evident in all groups, around 36%, during the same reference period,” the analysis indicates.
single-family homes on one level from 2018 to 2021 the increase has been 36%, single-family homes on two levels have increased by 37%, multi-family homes on four levels by 37%, while multi-family homes on eight levels or more have increased by 36.3%.
“Similarly, it is shown that affordable housing shows the greatest increase between 2019 and 2021, taking the information available for the North region of the country,” the Mivhed notes emphasize, based on reports from the National Statistics Office (ONE) and the Dominican Institute of Appraisers (ITADO) , North region.
It maintains that the variations in housing construction costs by economic level, for the Northern Region, reveal that in the case of the economic class the increase has been 48.6%, the middle class 29.2%, the upper middle class 23.5%, the upper class 25.6% and the houses with zinc roofs 33.1%.
Offers
Regarding the segmentation by sale price of housing units on offer in the Metropolitan Region in the second half of 2021, 27.6% of the units were in a price range of RD$5,000,001 to RD$15,000,000, according to the findings of the research.
It also highlights that 17.9% were priced between RD$3,001,000 and RD$5,000,000; and 7.9% were priced below RD$3,000,000. “The remaining units had a sale price exceeding RD$15,000,001 or no information was obtained regarding this,” it notes.
He adds that the units had a sale price of less than RD$3,000,000, equivalent to 6,449 units, in contrast to 673 units in 2021, which represented only 7.9% of the units in that year, highlighting that currently the supply of more affordable , with a price below RD$3,000,000 has decreased significantly.
The Ten-Year Housing Plan (PDV) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (Mivhed ) highlights the figures from the Building Supply Registry, which counts the number of housing units registered for sale that have already been sold, reserved, or reserved, and classifies them according to their sale price. It found that in the second half of 2021, 47.5% of these units had a sale price of RD$3,000,001 to RD$5,000,000; 34.9% had a sale price of RD$5,000,001 to RD$15,000,000; and only 11.7% had a sale price lower than RD$3,000,000.
“In contrast, in the second half of 2019, 44.5% of the units sold, reserved or kept had a sale price below RD$3,000,000, which suggests that between these two years the housing supply has shifted from lower price segments to higher price segments.”.
