THE Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Association (Creba) Inc. of Cebu is calling on developers to meet their socialized housing requirement.
Roberto Pacana, Creba president, said they wanted a documentation that details the compliance of developers under the Urban Development and Housing Act (Udha).
“We have to monitor the compliance of these developers. We would want a periodic reporting where the public and the local government units (LGU) will be conscious of their compliance,” he said.
Under Udha, developers of proposed residential condominiums are required to develop an area for socialized housing equivalent to at least five percent of the condominium area or project cost, at the option of the developer. For developers of subdivisions, it’s 20 percent.
The country’s current housing backlog is at six million.
“We’re always talking about housing gap but are we doing something (to address it)? That’s why Creba will initiate a city-wide, province-wide or region-wide program and we will analyze how much did Cebu contribute so far to address this gap. And then we will sit down with the stakeholders and do mapping as to where we are going,” he said.
Pacana said the LGUs should also remind developers of their commitment.
Recently, the Cebu City Government broke ground on a P230 million medium-rise building for the homeless and underprivileged families.
The five story structure will stand on a 1,800 square meter property that can accommodate at least 200 families in Barangay Lorega-San Miguel.
Simeon Romarate, head of the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor office of the City Government, said this development is a clear manifestation of developers complying with the law.
“There should be balanced socialized housing share from developers. Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said that your share of the development should be given to Cebu City because it needs a lot of socialized housing,” he said.
He said that with the construction boom in the city, there should be a share given to the marginalized sector in Cebu.