Cebu Pacific to buy 14 ATR aircraft

The Board of Investments (BOI) is considering revising incentive guidelines for mass housing in order to better address the housing backlog estimated to be around two million.

BOI managing head Elmer C. Hernandez said the usual scheme ignores horizontal construction. Horizontal dwellings are low rise and usually require bigger lots while vertical construction, although more expensive to build is more abundant in Metro Manila because of space limitations. 

Because there are more approvals for vertical buildings, there are lesser horizontal constructions or those made outside the metropolis.

Data from the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), condominium units sold for P3 million and below are considered mass housing.

“We have to ensure that the benefit of the incentives coming from BOI registration trickle down to the public and address the problem of mass housing,” Hernandez said.

The Board has previously approved several applications of mass housing projects, such as Filinvest Land Inc., Stateland Inc., Phinma Property Holdings Corp., CERES Homes Inc., DMC Urban Property Developers Inc. and LLSP Development Corp.

According to the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association (SHDA), a study made by the University of Asia and the Pacific (UAP), mass housing project has a multiplier effect of 16.6.  This means that for every peso invested in a housing project, P16.60 worth of investments in related industries sectors are generated.

The study said the formula they used to derive the multiplier effect is the same formula is being used by the Housing Development Corporation (HUDCC), Housing Land Utilization and Regulatory Board (HLURB), and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

DTI Secretary Peter B. Favila said mass housing project is one of the priority programs of the present administration to provide affordable housing to less affluent sector of society.

The registration as new developer of mass housing project is one of the preferred areas investments covered by the 2006 Investment Priorities Plan under the sub-heading Infrastructure-Mass Housing Projects.