THE House of Representatives’ Committee on Housing and Urban Development has reported out for plenary deliberation a bill making mandatory the participation of condominium developers in the socialized housing program.
House Bill 3189 is among the 13 new priority measures President Aquino recently presented before the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council.
Party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy of Bagong Henerasyon, the author of the bill, said the measure requires developers of condominiums to develop low-cost housing units equivalent to 20 percent of the total condominium area.
However, the bill also gives condominium builders an option to allocate 20 percent of the condominium project cost for the development of affordable housing for ordinary Filipinos.
The bill seeks to amend Republic Act 7279, or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, by adding condominium developers among those mandated to pursue socialized housing projects.
Originally, only developers of subdivisions are required to comply with the balanced housing development (BHD).
The BHD may also be carried out by developers for new settlement, slum upgrading or renewal of areas for priority development, joint-venture projects with either the local government unit or any housing agency, participation in the community mortgage program and acquisition of resettlement bonds.
Dy asked her colleagues for the swift approval of the bill, saying that while the government has been embarking on numerous housing projects for low-income Filipino families, socialized housing remains inaccessible to the poor.
“Demand for housing continues to grow as the Philippine population continues to grow rapidly,” said Dy.
The legislator disclosed that the housing needs over a five-year period starting 2005 has been projected to be about 3.75 million units.
“With the vertical housing development trend nowadays plus the bigger percentage of housing needs in the urban areas, the share and participation of the private sector in socialized housing has to be reassessed and restructured to include vertical housing developments, such as condominium projects, to help mitigate, if not eradicate this backlog of housing needs in the country,” she said.
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