More PPP projects seen with new housing body

CEBU, Philippines — The installation of Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) by January 1, 2020 is expected to forge more housing projects under private and public partnership.

Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council of the Philippines (HUDCC) chairperson Eduardo Del Rosario made this announcement in his recent visit to Cebu to grace the recently held Pag-IBIG Fund’s Stakeholders Accomplishment Report (STAR) event held at the Seda Ayala Center Hotel.

Following the release of the IRR (Implementing Rules and Regulation) of RA 11201, which creates the DHSUD, Del Rosario said the government can now extend faster and effective help in curbing the housing backlog of the country by forging partnerships with the private developers.

The creation of DHSUD will merge the HUDCC and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) cutting the bureaucratic red tape, which is largely blamed by the unresolved housing backlog in the Philippines, amid the booming real estate sector.

At the current budget of the government’s housing and urban development of P2.9 billion, the government alone cannot move to solve the housing backlog without forging a strategic partnership with private developers, he said.

Even with the proposed P6.2 billion budget under the DHSUD next year, it is way too small of the estimated P50 billion ideal budget to solve the 6.5 million housing backlog by 2022.

Housing backlog in the country is projected to balloon to 22.6 million units by 2040. Hopefully, with the plan to join efforts with private developers, this problem can be curtailed if not eventually eliminated.

Under the law, DHSUD will act as the primary national government agency responsible for the management of housing, human settlement and urban development.

The new department serves as the sole and main planning and policy-making and regulatory agency for all housing, human settlement and urban development concerns, as mandated by the law.

The DHSUD is tasked to develop and adopt a national strategy to immediately address the country’s housing gap.