Building permits issued increasing in Davao

THE people of Davao have seen different construction of buildings and other development plans in the city, especially in the downtown area. With this, the city is slowly taking its spot as the next hub for high-rise infrastructures in the Philippines.

Davao City Building Office (CBO) chief Engr. Jaime Adalin said the property development sector in Davao is booming as evidenced by the increasing number of building permits issued to property developers of residential, commercial, and industrial infrastructures.

Adalin said 2011 records show that Davao is becoming a full-grown metropolis as CBO was able to post a whopping 4,139 total building permits approved. But, its latest record as of May 2012, the figure already reaches to more than a half the figure at 2,716 building permits approved and still counting.

With the strength of investment flow for the real estate in the city, Adalin is positive to surpass its previous record last year.

Adalin said industry players prefer to invest in Davao considering that primary cities like Manila are already congested with high-rise infrastructures, unlike Davao which has still a wide vast of land good for development expansion.

But for him, it is more about the peace and order situation of the city that investors are lured to come in here and infuse investments worth millions.

Aside from peace and order, the city also can boast its potable water, which is known for so many years as second cleanest in the world.

Based on the CBO records, there's an apparent increase of collection fees year by year. Records show the collection fees in 2008 reached P44.56 million. In 2009, collection fees increased by three percent at P46.04 million. In the following year, 2010, total collection fees were pegged at P49.93 million, up by 7.8 percent from that of 2009.

In 2011, Adalin said the total collection fees reached P56.70 million, or an increase of 11.9 percent compared to the 2010 collection.

The collection fees as of January to April this year already reached P32.9 million which is already half from CBO's target collection by yearend at P65 million.

The annual increase in the total amount of collection fees every year only shows that many of the industry players from the property development sector have an increasing confidence to invest in the city, which is beneficial for the economic growth of Davao.

Davao, indeed, is slowly turning into a full-bloom metropolis in a few years’ time. (ALC)