When World War II in the Philippines ended in 1945, Commonwealth President Sergio Osmeña faced a serious housing problem in the national capital and its suburbs. Manila, after all, was the most devastated city in the Pacific theater of the war. Aggravating the problem was the lack of cold cash to finance the operations of the government.
Osmeña took bold steps to rehabilitate the national economy and boost infrastructure development in key places in the archipelago. Pre-war bank accounts were abrogated and lending rates for banking institutions were regulated. Soon enough, the economy recovered and a boom in the local construction industry ensued.
Since many Filipinos perished during the war, the demand for low-cost housing, although pronounced, was still manageable. In the 1950s, real estate developers turned to vast tracts of land in Quezon City. Government employees and workers in the private sector bought residential lots in the “project” areas in the city through affordable loans arranged by government financial institutions. Soldiers and civilian employees of the armed services were given housing accommodations in Fort Bonifacio, south of Manila.
As in the years before the war, most of the wealthy families of the 1950s resided in nice, tall homes in the Malate and Ermita districts of Manila, and in seaside addresses in nearby Pasay City. When these areas became too crowded by the end of the decade, the families moved to the gated, American-style villages in Makati, and to the quaint New Manila district of Quezon City.
The scenario changed in the 1960s when President Diosdado Macapagal failed to encourage industrial development in the provinces. Since gainful employment could be obtained only in Manila and its suburbs (today’s Metropolitan Manila), many people from the countryside were enticed to try their luck in the big city. Because the metropolis could not accommodate the sudden influx of new settlers, squatter colonies mushroomed everywhere. Macapagal tried to solve the problem by introducing a tenement housing project in Taguig, but his term was short-lived by the election of President Ferdinand Marcos.
Marcos addressed the mass housing problem by providing squatter families in the metropolis with free housing in several adjacent communities in Bulacan, the most famous of which is Sapang Palay. His administration also came out with the Bliss medium-height tenement housing projects in Metropolitan Manila, which still exist today.
Mass housing woes worsened during the administration of President Corazon Aquino, and became widespread during the incumbency of President Fidel Ramos. Because Aquino and Ramos did not industrialize the countryside, the number of people seeking employment in the metropolis increased exponentially. Worse, soldiers and their families were displaced from their modest homes in Fort Bonifacio when the Ramos administration sold a big chunk of the military reservation to big business groups which eventually called their new acquisition the Bonifacio Global City. Yes, the soldiers lost their homes in Fort Bonifacio when Ramos, himself a soldier, was their commander-in-chief.
Attempts of post-Marcos administrations to solve the housing problem of the nation have been dismal and disappointing. Land on both sides of the railway along the Osmeña Highway (the former South Superhighway) was sold through a developer who converted the long stretch into a series of pathetic-looking apartment buildings. There were numerous complaints indicating that the units sold in other government housing projects both within and outside the national capital region are substandard. Just recently, the units in a new housing project for soldiers and policemen were declared uninhabitable by humans. Evidently, public funds were wasted on these needless projects.
A few years ago, several respectable real estate developers participated in the socialized housing projects of the government. The housing units were affordable and substantially alright, and the projects were completed on time. Each project looked far better than the typical mass housing projects of prior years (where numerous housing units are built on a miserably small parcel of land). Unfortunately, these respectable developers are already retired from the construction industry.
Lately, however, public attention has been focused on a number of real estate developers who appear able to address the acute shortage of mass housing facilities in the country today. While the bulk of them seem to be no different from typical real estate developers, one player, the Property Company of Friends Inc. or Profriends, is currently attracting considerable interest.
Available documentation reveals that Profriends has been in the construction business since 1999, and that it has successfully completed 17 low-cost housing projects. Likewise, it has numerous ongoing housing projects in Cavite, particularly in Bacoor, Imus, Kawit, and General Trias, and in Iloilo.
Unlike other developers, Profriends owns almost 2000 hectares of land, all ready for use in its many low-cost housing plans on the drawing board. Because the land already belongs to Profriends, the selling price of its housing units are not at the mercy of inflation. The success of Profriends attracted investments from GT Capital Holdings Inc., which purchased nearly 30 percent of the company last August. GT Capital Holdings Inc. is owned by local business tycoon George S. K. Ty of Metrobank fame.
GT Capital disclosed that it invested in Profriends because of the good reputation of the company, the quality of its housing units, and the extensive land ownership of the company which, as mentioned earlier, assures its economic viability and stability. GT Capital management also acknowledged that investing in Profriends was its way of penetrating the hitherto impenetrable mass housing construction industry in the Philippines.
Observers believe that the new business alliance between Profriends and GT Capital will appeal more to Filipinos who need affordable and quality housing.
Hopefully, the bright prospects for this business alliance will encourage other big names in the local business community to invest in the low-cost housing construction industry. More investments in this direction, made by reputable businessmen or companies, may be the only feasible solution to the acute housing problem confronting the country today.