CREBA intensifies support to 4PH targets

The country’s oldest and largest housing and real estate advocacy group expressed its all-out support anew to the Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PH) program, the government’s flagship initiative to address the 6.8 million housing shortfall with the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) as lead agency. The Chamber of Real Estate & Builders’ Associations, Inc. (CREBA) underscored this commitment on the occasion of DHSUD’S fifth anniversary last February 14 where Secretary Jose Rizalino L. Acuzar bared the agency’s performance milestones towards safe and secure human settlements for all. CREBA national president Noel Toti M. Cariño said that in response, their group will continue to push for its long-term aspirations through a 5-point agenda for housing, which it offers for consideration of policy decision-makers and legislators to create a sustainable environment where the private sector can more effectively assist government through an effective balancing of shelter finance, land access and housing development regulations. CREBA said that apart from the obvious need, making housing the centerpiece program of the government is not only a social imperative, but a far-reaching economic strategy due to its tremendous output multiplier, income multiplier and labor multiplier effects – as economic and financial experts worldwide widely acknowledge. The group said that while the Constitution mandates government to look upon all sectors with equal favor, annual government appropriations for housing against a backdrop of millions of landless and homeless Filipino households continue to be dishearteningly small. The group welcomed the recent joint memorandum of the DHSUD and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA adjusting the price caps for socialized subdivision and condominium projects in the country. To ensure the success of the 4PH program, CREBA emphasized the need to set in place a conducive environment for increased housing development by further strengthening and empowering the DHSUD and its key shelter agencies with ample support from the rest of the national agencies and local government units. CREBA pushes for the elimination of major roadblocks to effective mass housing production. Among them are restrictive land access, extremely limited homebuyer financing, lack of funds for public housing and governance issues.