₱455,000 vs. ₱940,000 Per Sqm: Why BIR Land Values Vary Inside a Single Barangay

Manila Philippines - August 26, 2026 - MANILA, Philippines — In one Makati barangay, the published Bureau of Internal Revenue zonal value ranges from ₱455,000 to ₱940,000 per square meter, depending on the specific location and classification within it. That is more than a two-fold difference inside a single barangay — before reaching the separate question of what a buyer would actually pay.

Barangay San Lorenzo covers both Legazpi Village and the Ayala Center. Land under the same commercial-residential classification in Barangay Guadalupe Viejo, in the same city, is published at ₱330,000.

So which figure applies to a particular property? And does any of them describe what the land is worth?

Finding the applicable figure is itself a problem. The BIR publishes zonal values through its revenue regions and district offices, broken down by location and classification. The information is public, but it is issued as separate documents ordered by revenue district rather than by address, which makes it hard for an ordinary owner to navigate.

LandValuePH has organized 534,228 published BIR zonal-value records covering 48 provinces and 905 cities and municipalities into a single searchable database. The lookup is free and requires no registration. The company says the aim is straightforward: a property owner should not have to search through hundreds of government documents to find the reference value for their own land.

One property, several different numbers

A zonal value is a government reference used in administering certain taxes and property transactions. It is not a guarantee of what a willing buyer will pay.

A single property can carry several figures at once: the published zonal value, an asking price, the price a buyer and seller actually settle on, and an appraised value prepared by a licensed professional for a specific purpose and date. None of these makes the others wrong. They measure different things.

Road frontage, access, corner position, classification, elevation, flood exposure and surrounding development all move what buyers will offer, as do the circumstances of the sale.

A starting point, not a valuation

LandValuePH provides the free lookup as a starting point for property research, alongside calculators for transaction costs. Paid valuation reports, which draw on additional property and market information, produce an initial estimate rather than a formal appraisal.

Coverage is not complete. Thirty-four provinces are not yet represented, and the company continues to organize additional published BIR issuances.

A national shift

Republic Act No. 12001, the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act, establishes market value as the national valuation base for real-property-related taxes and government transactions, while transitional provisions continue to govern areas where new schedules of market values are not yet available. The law also calls for a comprehensive electronic database of real-property transactions subject to privacy protections.

The country is moving toward a more unified, market-value-based framework. Property owners still face a more basic problem today: finding and understanding the references that already exist.

About LandValuePH

LandValuePH is a Philippine property valuation and information platform operated by AHG Lab, providing free access to organized published BIR zonal-value information and paid valuation reports for landowners, buyers, brokers and property professionals.

LandValuePH is not affiliated with the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Its valuation results are an initial estimate and are not a substitute for an appraisal by a licensed appraiser or professional advice.

Property owners can check the published BIR zonal value for their covered location for free at LandValuePH.com — and see the government reference before making a major property decision.