LiveDavao Methodology
LiveDavao publishes practical guidance about living in Davao City. Where the data allows, a figure is tied to a source, a sampling window, and a date it was last checked. This page explains where the numbers come from and what they can reasonably be used for.
Where figures come from
Published primary sources. DLPC rate sheets, DCWD bulletins, DHSUD resolutions, BIR Revenue Regulations, DOLE labor advisories, PSA surveys, LTFRB fare orders, PIA releases, the Davao City Engineer's Office, and lawphil.net for statute text. These are cited with a link and the date they were read.
Institutional secondaries. Pag-IBIG Fund, OWWA, PhilHealth, bank and remittance rate cards, dues schedules from named buildings, and PSA-derived indexes. They corroborate a primary source, or fill a gap where no primary figure is published.
Active listings. Listing portals and marketplace posts across Lanang, Bajada, Matina-Ecoland, Bangkal, Toril, Buhangin and Mintal, sampled when a guide is refreshed, and cross-checked against landlord or condo-management quotes where we can get them. Asking rents, not signed rents — a distinction that matters, and one we try to keep visible.
Resident observation. Ground-level detail from people living here: palengke prices at Bankerohan, jeepney routes, flood depths after specific storms, what a BPO commute actually looks like. This is the softest tier, and it is labeled as observation rather than presented as a published rate.
How prices appear on the site
- Prices are given as dated ranges rather than single numbers, wide enough to cover the variation we actually saw in the sampling window.
- A figure carries an as of date beside it, or comes from a government page linked in the same paragraph.
- Where the sample is thin — a niche barangay, one building's lease history — we say so in the same sentence rather than in a footnote.
- Where a number is an observation rather than a published rate, the wording says so ("based on observed listings"), so you can weigh it accordingly.
Calculator methodology
Each Davao calculator carries a methodology section setting out its rate base, its math, the assumptions it makes, and the uncertainty band around the result. The bands are there because the inputs vary — rates move month to month, appliances differ, and households behave differently — so the output is a planning estimate rather than a bill.
Calculators are updated when we notice the underlying rate has moved; DLPC and DCWD adjust monthly. Each tool page shows the date its figures were last checked.
Editorial review cadence
These are the review windows we aim for, not a promise — the last-updated date in each article's byline is the real signal of how current a figure is.
| Claim type | Review window |
|---|---|
| DLPC / DCWD rates | Monthly |
| Rent + vacancy data | Quarterly |
| NHSB rent cap (RA 9653) | Annually |
| Building / employer named specifics | Annually |
| Flood zone data | Every 18 months |
| Legal framework (RA 9653, BIR rules) | Every 2 years or on rule change |
An article that runs past its window is either refreshed or marked so you can see that it has.
The Davao Living Cost Index
The quarterly Davao Living Cost Index is our own rental sample. Each release publishes the details you need to judge it:
- Sample size per segment. Each band shows its n, so a thin segment is visible as a thin segment.
- Collection window. A stated reporting month rather than "early 2026".
- Method. Asking rents from listing portals, reported as p25 / median / p75 with the min–max range. Median is the headline figure; the luxury tail is left out of it deliberately.
- Limitations, up front. Asking rent runs above negotiated rent. A portal sample under-counts Facebook and word-of-mouth inventory. Condos are over-represented relative to the wider rental stock. All of that is on the page.
- Downloadable data. The dataset is published as CSV at a stable URL and refreshed each quarter, so a figure can be checked against the underlying rows.
The open-data catalog
The Cost Index is one of several datasets we keep. They are indexed at /davao-data, each with its sample size, collection window, refresh cadence, provenance, and a downloadable file where the data supports one:
- Pag-IBIG MP2 vs Regular Savings dividends — the annual MP2 and regular-savings rates for 2017–2025, refreshed after each Pag-IBIG declaration. Each year is cited to the document it was read from — the Fund’s own declaration releases and rate table where those carry the year, and dated news reporting of the declaration where they do not. Nothing is interpolated between years, and where the two programmes’ rates move together that is what the sources say, not a figure derived from its neighbour.
- Davao Neighborhood Scorecard — five rental districts scored 0–5 on flood risk, walkability, safety, noise, and commute to five anchors. The scores are judgments grounded in the district guides, not measurements, and are revisited quarterly.
- Region XI minimum wage — the DOLE NWPC wage-order daily rates and tranche schedule that 13th-month and final-pay computations are built on, refreshed on each tranche as well as on a wage-order revision. A tranche inside an existing order moves the rate without revising the order, so waiting for a revision would leave the figure a step behind.
Charts and missing data
Charts sit next to the table they were drawn from. Three things we hold to:
- The table is the source. Charts sit beside a server-rendered table and a CSV, so the figures are readable without the chart.
- Gaps stay gaps. A missing value is left blank rather than interpolated or carried forward to make a line look complete.
- A trend needs periods. A time series is only drawn once there are enough real periods to draw one; until then the page shows the baseline and says so.
What LiveDavao does not do
- No affiliate-driven recommendations, and no paid relationships with named buildings, landlords, banks, ISPs, or remittance services.
- No anonymous "best of" listicles. If a building or service is named, the article says why, or shows the data behind the mention.
- Where we cannot support a number, we would rather leave it out than estimate one.
See /sources for the source list, /editorial-standards for the writing standards, and /about for background on the site.