Developers want higher socialized housing price
Socialized housing producers are urging the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) to reconsider and increase the present price ceiling for socialized housing from 1480,000 to 1533,333.
The call is being made by the two largest associations, the Organization of Socialized and Economic Housing Developers of the Philippines (OSHDP) and the Socialized Housing Alliance Roundtable Endeavour (SHARE).
It will be recalled that HUDCC Council approved a new housing ceiling of 1480,000 on April 27, 2018 from 1450,000, but also increased the minimum floor area from 18 sq. m. to 24 sq. m., thus negating whatever price adjustments that was given.
SHARE President Marcelino C. Mendoza pointed out that an increased housing ceiling would enable more borrowers to avail of the “socialized 3 percent rate of interest” by the Pag-IBIG Fund.
This would greatly alleviate their cash position considering that inflation is highest at 6.6 percent at present.
OSHDP President Engr. Jefferson S. Bongat said that the unrealistic price has dampened enthusiasm for new production, and this has already been evident with the anticipated decline in the licenses to sell issued by HLURB.
“Such situation is untenable considering that the government budget has been slashed to only around 4.7 billion in 2018 from a high of 33.4 billion in 2016, and it is the private sector, which is expected to take the slack,” Bongat added.
He said the housing backlog of 6 million units is nowhere to be met and will continue to pile up.
Mendoza, on behalf of non-government organizations producing houses, said the prices of raw land have increased by more than 15 percent.
The minimum wage has also been increased, to 1573 or 49 percent in Metro Manila, on top of increased competition for both skilled and unskilled labor from the government’s
“Build, Build, Build” Program, and the usual higher wages demanded by Filipinos working abroad.
The most recent Construction Materials Price Index for the third quarter of 2018 is at 252.83, up by 18.86 points from 233.97 in the same period of 2017.
In a letter to HUDCC Chair Eduardo del Rosario, the housing industry stakeholders – the OSHDP, the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association, and the National Real Estate Association – requested HUDCC for a 1533,333 price ceiling for a 24 sq. m. house.
The HUDCC Chair informed the industry to first try out the April 27, 2018 approvals.
The industry dutifully obliged and tried it out, Mendoza said.
Six months after, OSHDP and SHARE consider the situation as now nearing crisis proportions and private developers and NGOs involved in housing are requesting for immediate relief by way of increasing the housing price ceiling.