The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), the central housing authority in the country, is looking at incentivizing “rental housing” by including this scheme in the list of projects under the Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP).
DHSUD Real Estate Development and Regulation Bureau OIC-Director Atty. Angelito Aguila said at the “Kapihan sa DHSUD: Housing Matters” that there are talks with the Board of Investments (BOI), the main agency in the crafting of the SIPP, to include even rental housing in the list.
“We have to come up with other modes of secured housing. We can grant usurfruct for housing for those who are not yet ready for home ownership in terms of affordability and preference by providing temporary rental,” he said.
Aguila explained that ‘rental housing’ is another provision of the country’s 20-year Housing Roadmap, which seeks to address two issues of housing backlog and affordability.
“For those who want a home in the city for their children in school and eventually go back to the province, why not just provide with temporary rental housing,” said Aguila.
In addition, he said, rental housing can also serve as compliance to BOI requirements in the registration of mass housing projects.
Executive Order 226 or the Omnibus Investments Code of 1987, as amended, requires low cost housing developers to allocate 20 percent of their units for socialized housing under Republic Act No. 7279 to help address the country’s housing backlog. Developers of low cost housing projects registered with the BOI are entitled to fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.
Aguila further said that ‘rental housing’ scheme is not only for the government but also for the private sector housing developers. “Rental housing can be incentivized by the government and the private sector can go into that,” he said.
“We hear developers say there are not enough land, the housing roadmap provides the unlocking of land, of government land,” he said adding that “Government has plenty of lands that are idle and readily available and we can utilize to increase housing production for informal sectors even for the private sector or in partnership.”
First and foremost, he said, “If we really have to increase our housing production, we have to make our land accessible, utilizable.”
May Rodriguez, national president of the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association, said the private sector can participate in this scheme in partnership with local government units.
Rodriguez said that LGU-owned idle lands can be used to develop housing for rent to government employees or informal settlers. She added there is a market for rental properties especially from working population and even students studying away from home.
The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council estimated total housing backlog of 5.7 million for the period 2011-2016. Based on this, HUDCC said there is a need to build 2,602 homes per day in the next six years.
Aguila also added that another feature of the housing roadmap is to come up with one single housing regulatory system to effectively and efficiently implement the housing programs.