Metro Manila ‘vertical’ housing to lose incentives

THE Board of Investments (BoI) plans to remove incentives previously given to housing development in Metro Manila in its latest investment scheme package, an official said.

Trade Undersecretary and BoI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo said that the new Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) will no longer include incentives for housing developers unless the project helps address specific urban housing problems.

The BoI is drafting its IPP for the years 2017-2019. The IPP, which is set to be released in December, provides a list of incentives that BoI will provide to key sectors in order to strategically distribute development. The current package, launched in 2014, expires this year.

The perks for Metro Manila will “definitely” be removed for vertical developments, Mr. Rodolfo told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of a corporate event, noting that the intent is part to push development outside Metro Manila.

One possible form of housing project that may be retained in the incentive plan is “dormitories for urban workers” to provide “decent accommodation” to such workers, precluding the need for them to commute to distant homes.

According to the IPP 2014-2016 guidelines, preferred businesses are in manufacturing, agribusiness and fishery, services, economic and lowcost housing, hospitals, energy, public infrastructure and logistics, and publicprivate partnership projects.

The current IPP package covers horizontal and vertical housing, setting particular requirements such as a range of selling price and the minimum number of livable dwelling units.

The new IPP that would be imposed next year would narrow that requirement by intending to push housing development outside of Metro Manila.

This measure is also intended to help address the housing backlog, which is estimated at around 5.7 million units, according to Vice-President Maria Leonor G. Robredo, who holds the housing portfolio in the Cabinet. —