WHILE they welcome the passage of the Ease of Doing Business Law, the Organization of Socialized and Economic Housing Developers of the Philippines (OSHDP) wants the government to set up an express lane to fast-track socialized housing developments.
According to lawyer Christopher Ryan Tan, general counsel and past president of OSHDP, it would take developers an average of three years before they are given the go-signal to begin construction, making it difficult for them to address the country’s housing backlog.
“This is a major setback we face. The quickest we know so far is one year (approval),” he said, adding that the country’s permitting process is highly regulated.
For a subdivision to start, a developer has to secure 73 permits and 146 signatures before it can proceed with the ground-breaking.
“We are hopeful that with this proposal for an express lane, we would be able to fast-track the building of homes and eventually address the growing housing backlog,” explained Tan.
“We aim to bring down the one to three years’ approval into six months so we could right away start building,” he said.
OSHDP will formally endorse this proposal and highlight their need for easier and seamless processing of permits and other documents during a national convention in Cebu on Aug. 23 and 24.
“The Ease of Doing Business Law is beneficial to us but we need to see this law really working on the ground,” said Tan.
The country’s housing backlog is somewhere between 168,000 and 190,000 units a year. By 2021, the housing need is projected to be around 6.7 million.
Socialized housing in the Philippines, which includes building a house and buying land, costs a maximum of P450,000.
Tan said this segment in housing is under-producing because it’s “unprofitable.” “Despite its production, it’s barely catching up,” he said. Faster growth in population is one factor that triggered the ballooning housing backlog.
“Unfortunately, developers are shying away from these projects for being unprofitable,” he said.
OSHDP also wants to build a healthy relationship with the local government units, saying they are critical partners when building a community.