Cut red tape to address housing backlog – Angara

Senator Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara has urged government housing agencies to cut red tape to address the housing backlog in the country. Angara said that while the government housing agencies have done a lot to comply with the tenets of the ease of doing business, more has to be done to address the needs of the informal sector.

Angara said “documentary hurdles” are discouraging families from building their first homes.

“Before you pour your first pail of cement, you have to follow a long paper trail. And many families do not have the energy for that,” Angara noted.

The Senate finance committee chair said that even professional homebuilders and real estate companies have to contend with "a long checklist of requirements that must be met before, during and after the construction of whether it’s a single-unit or a high-rise.”

He noted that building a house is a slog through 27 offices, 78 permits, 156 signa

tures, 373 documents that could last for months.

Red tape, Angara said, "is slowing down housing production in the country."

And for socialized or affordable mass housing, pre-construction processing time could last up to 74 months, if it involves land conversion, titling and financing.

Angara said government housing officials have reported to him that it normally takes the National Housing Authority (NHA) 12 to 30 months to get a green light for construction.

Angara said the time spent by the Social Housing Finance Corporation for its Community Mortgage Program projects is between 16 to 74 months. Private developers, meanwhile, spend 12 to 51 months to acquire all pre-building permits.

"The list can be shortened and the timetable sped up without sacrificing safety and without short-circuiting building rules," he said.

“If we will not cut red tape, the national housing backlog will worsen and it will turn into a national housing crisis,” added Angara.

Based on future demand and current pace of production, Angara said the backlog in housing units can hit 6.6 million by 2022, from 5.5 million in 2016.

“But we can ramp up production by improving the regulatory environment. When there is ease in doing business, financing comes in, and with volume comes affordability," he said.

Angara said the mandate of several anti-red tape laws should be applied to housing “not just in national government agencies but also in local governments.”

He said streamlining and simplifying the issuance of housing-related clearances and permits should be done under one-stop processing centers whose establishment is required by Republic Act 10884 or the Balanced Housing Program Amendments Act.

“It is not even a new idea; 27 years ago, the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 already called for the operationalization of that set up,” Angara pointed out.