Saturday, October 27, 2007 HUDCC mulls 1-stop shop
VICE President Noli de Castro yesterday announced that the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) will set up a “one-stop shop” to cut down bureaucracy and expedite issuance of permits for housing projects.
De Castro, also HUDCC chairman, noted that bureaucracy has delayed several housing projects.
“It is time to re-think the entire policy of permit issuance,” he said. “It is time to deregulate the industry.”
He said HUDCC has been able to cut the bureaucracy involved in the approval of housing projects so more Filipinos will have access to their own houses and lots, particularly low-cost dwelling.
He said he will push for the further streamlining of the processes involved in the approval of housing projects and the reduction of the number of requirements for certain permits. He also raised the need to clarify certain permits that appear to duplicate others.
Standards
“We should stop using permits as a way to impose rules and regulations. We should set standards instead,” he said during his keynote address at the national convention of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Associations Inc. (Creba) at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
De Castro stressed, though, that the government will impose sanctions on those who violate standards.
“There will be no sacred cows,” he said.
He also told Creba members that the HUDCC will grant temporary licenses to projects that meet delays due to non-issuance of permits from local government units.
Creba national president Pedro Tario, for his part, said the group hopes to see a “one-stop shop” for housing project permit processing in every major city in the country next month.
Tario said Creba has been advocating for less bureaucracy in the processing of real estate projects.
Timely
He said de Castro’s pronouncements are “timely” as the National Government needs to meet its target of having one million socialized housing units by 2010.
He said Creba continues to hold dialogs with concerned government agencies in the housing sector to harmonize requirements and expedite the approval of projects.
Tario said in a separate press interview that delays in real estate projects can raise the cost of the developed property.
He said that since developers will add the cost of the delay to the total project cost, the buyers will be the ones who will suffer in the end.
He also pointed out that the housing backlog was estimated to be 4.5 million in 1995 yet.
One of the requirements that Tario cited as causing delays in the approval of housing projects are the certifications of the agriculture and agrarian reform departments on the reclassification of land.
Real estate developers are required to get certifications from government agencies concerned that the site of a particular project is no longer viable for agriculture and can, therefore, be used for other uses (other than farming).
Tario said the land use plan and zoning ordinance of the concerned local government should satisfy the requirement as it is the one which has the power to convert agricultural land into other uses.
“The power of the local government unit should be sufficient,” he said. (LAP)
