Eighty percent of Filipinos living in the UAE plan to buy at least one property for additional income and retirement fund apart from their residential home, according to a new survey.
The poll by the Philippine Property and Investment Exhibition (PPIE) also showed that 91 percent of Filipino expats are positive that their career in the UAE will grow.
It revealed that 95 percent believe that property values in the Philippines will continue to increase, while 83 percent believe that the weakening of peso against the dirham is making it cheaper to buy property in the Philippines.
The survey, which was commissioned by New Perspective Media, organisers of PPIE, polled 2,150 Filipinos across the UAE and comes ahead of the 6th edition of PPIE on May 4-5 in Dubai.
In preparation for retirement or going home for good, eight out of 10 said they would need at least one property to live off a comfortable life using rental income. There are approximately one million Filipinos in the UAE.
Karen Remo, partner and managing director of NPM, said: “Filipinos in UAE are optimistic that their career in the emirates will grow, boosting their purchasing power. Today, a bigger chunk of Filipino expats is more financially literate and their top investment preference is property.
“This comes as no surprise because the World Bank forecasts that the Philippines will continue to be the fastest-growing economy in the Association of South East Asian Nations this year up to 2020, driven specifically by a dynamic real estate sector in 2018,” she said.
“On top of that, Filipinos in the UAE are taking advantage of the weakening of the peso and strengthening of the US dollar, to which the UAE dirham is pegged, making it more affordable for overseas Filipino workers to buy property in the Philippines,” Remo added.
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