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Friday, March 29, 2024

Housing developers see rebound, vow backlog cut

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The Subdivision and Housing Developers Association said Tuesday it expects to sustain the recovery of the residential sector and reduce the housing backlog this year.

SHDA president May Rodriguez said while private developers incurred losses at the start of the pandemic due to lower sales and collection, they began to see recovery toward the end of 2020 and 202a1.

“We understand some of our buyers lost their jobs or shifted their priorities. Fortunately, towards the end of 2020 and 2021, many developers were able to recover, but not yet to pre-pandemic levels. Private developers were able to accomplish 50 percent to 70 percent of what they were doing pre-pandemic,” Rodriguez said during the first Kapihan Forum 2022 organized in partnership with the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Developments.

She said the sector anticipates the continuation of the rebound as developers clear the backlog that built up during the pandemic.

The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council estimated the housing backlog at 5.7 million units for 2011 to 2016. The HUDCC said to clear this backlog, there was a need to build 2,602 homes a day in the next six years.

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DHSUD officer-in-charge director for real estate development and regulation bureau Angelito Aguila said the government plans to grant incentives to a new housing scheme that would make homeownership accessible while addressing the backlog.

The DHSUD had initial talks with the Board of Investments to include rental housing in the Strategic Investment Priorities Plan that would entitle developers to incentives.

Aguila said the government might allow rental housing as compliance by developers to a regulation mandating them to allocate a portion of their project portfolio to socialized housing.

“Rental housing is being considered as an option for those who cannot afford homeownership right away and will form part of the country’s 20-year housing roadmap. One way of making land available for housing is to unlock idle government land,” he said.

He said the government has plenty of idle and readily available land that can be used to improve housing production for the informal sectors and even for the private sector in partnership with the government.

Aguila said housing needs could not be readily met under the “for sale” scheme, particularly for socialized and economical housing.

“We have to come up with other modes of secured housing. We can grant usufruct for housing for those who are not yet ready for homeownership in terms of affordability and preference by providing temporary rental housing,” he said.

Rodriguez said the private sector could undertake the scheme in partnership with local government units.

“LGUs’ idle lands can be used to develop housing for rent to government employees or informal settlers. There is a market for rental properties, especially from the working population and even students who live in the province,” Rodriguez said.

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