Housing sector pledges 600,000 units up to 2004

The country’s biggest housing developers’ associations will be building around 600,000 units until 2004, in a bid to ease the current housing shortage.

The first-ever housing pledging ceremony in Malacañang Thursday night was participated in by the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Associations (CREBA), Subdivision and Housing Developers Association, Builders Alliance Towards Action, National Real Estate Association, Organization of Socialized Housing Developers, and Women in Shelter and Environment.

President Arroyo thanked the industry for responding to her call for active private sector involvement in the housing program. She cited "the crucial policy reforms" she had worked out for a conducive environment for housing development, including lower interest rates for homebuyers and more private sector financing for housing.

While SHDA national president Jesus B. Atencio and CREBA national president Florentino S. Dulalia Jr. separately presented their respective groups’ commitments, Chairman Michael T. Defensor said the pledging session underscored the industry’s unity in serving the homeless and the nation.

SHDA pledged the delivery of 236,076 units by 2004, while CREBA and the four other groups, BATA, NREA, OSHAP and WISE, committed a combined total of 325,425 units. Thus, the combined commitments of CREBA with four other industry groups, and SHDA accounted for a total of 561,501 housing units, surpassing the President’s target of 300,000 units in her State of the Nation Addresses in 2001 and 2002, and even her new target of 500,000 units within a decade.

On the same occasion, CREBA and the four industry organizations, joined by SHDA, signed in the presence of President Arroyo a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) on the provision of equitable land access for housing and urban development. DAR agreed to make available at least 200,000 hectares of land for housing and urban development for the next 20 years. With this MOA, Dulalia pointed out, "it will now be possible to reduce by 50 percent the current shortage of housing units estimated at five million, by the year 2010."

Dulalia said the industry’s commitment fully supports President Arroyo’s "vow of pursuing the housing program to provide decent housing and basic services to our homeless citizens."

On account of the pump-priming role of housing and urban development in business and industries, Dulalia stressed, "the housing and building industry contributes to the national economy in terms of livelihood and employment opportunities, thereby promoting economic growth all around."

The commitment of CREBA, BATA represented by chairman Romeo Liamzon Jr., NREA by chairman Jose V. Manalad, OSHDAP by chairman Wilfredo M. Tan, and WISE by vice-chair Jeanne G. Menguito, Dulalia said, is part of the industry’s overall effort to "transform into reality the dream of every Filipino to have decent shelter for himself and his family."

The industry, Dulalia stressed, "stands united in purpose, vision and conviction to respond affirmatively to the challenges of a viable housing program for homeless families and help achieve the overall goal of enhancing the quality of life of our people."

Under the MOA with DAR and HUDCC, and the six industry groups of CREBA, SHDA, BATA, NREA, OSHAP, and WISE, the signatories agreed to work closely in harmonizing the objectives of agrarian reform and the housing program in order to serve the basic needs of both urban and rural sectors in accordance with the Constitution.

Meanwhile, under a program called SHDA Pledge 200,000, the total 236,076-unit housing commitment will consist of more than 77,000 units of low-cost housing worth P28.9 billion at P375,000 each, and P33,084 units of socialized housing worth P6.62 billion at P200,000 each. For the middle-income groups, 66,423 units costing P800,000 each totalling P53.14 billion are committed. The rest goes to upscale projects. Some 72 small, medium, large and publicly-listed SHDA developers nationwide are involved in this mass-housing commitment.

"The SHDA pledge 200,000 is a showcase of what the government and private sector can accomplish together if they harmonize their objectives and work for a common goal," SHDA Chairman Teofisto Guingona III said.

Among the developers who committed in the SHDA pledge 200,000 include the Laguna Properties Holdings – an Ayala Land subsidiary, Robinsons Homes, Filinvest, Phinma Properties, Stateland, R-II Builders, Solar Resources, Confed and Property Co., and other top real estate firms," Guingona said, citing a housing project in Jolo, Sulu that is also include in the list of SHDA housing pledge.

"Housing and related infrastructure projects are traditionally the pump-priming engine of growth of depressed economies. We are believing this SHDA pledge, committed by our key developers known for their long track-record of development projects, will provide the much needed impetus to put our growth back on track," Atencio said, adding that housing projects usually trigger a 16 percent multiplier effect on the country’s economy, recalling it was the housing and heavy infrastructure projects that bailed the US out of economic depression in the early 40s.

The President said the recent implementation of her key housing policies augurs well for this pledge, such as the passage of Executive Order No. 45 fast-tracking the processing of subdivision permits and licenses; the lowering of HDMF end-user loan interest rates which has produced immediate effects in increased sales; and the increase in the socialized and low-cost housing ceiling to P225,000 and P2.0 million, respectively.

She said these reforms, "and the growth of our exports and imports, the increase of our gross domestic product and the lowering of interest rate, are providing the necessary business climate that can greatly encourage our developer to fast-track their pipeline projects and build more houses."

The President also stressed this 200,000-unit pledge of the SHDA, the country’s biggest developers, is only a fraction of what its members can do. "I understand that because SHDA’s pledges are voluntary, only about 36 percent of its members was able to submit their figures in time for the pledging session. So they can do so much more." Addressing the developers, she added," I have no doubt in your capacity to deliver this pledge."

But beyond the numbers, Atencio sees "the dedication of the developers, as shown by their track-record in housing to persevere even in the times of economic crises." Most of the projects committed are either already ongoing or slated to start in 2003, for "these are real projects, not empty promises. We would like the President and the nation to know specifically where our pledges are coming from, what type of houses and who the developers behind it are." He agreed to establish an HUDCC-SHDA monitoring task force for his purpose.

The projects will also be focused more in the countryside. About half of the projects go to Luzon, some 38,000 units or 20 percent of the total will be built in Mindanao and 15 percent for the Visayas and Metro Manila.

"We go wherever there is one dreaming to have a house he can call his own – and that’s every Filipino," Atencio said.