Developers to tackle balanced housing

The ongoing amendments to Republic Act or the Urban Development and ousing Act (UD A will be the main topic during the 5th monthly business meeting of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Associations, Inc. (CREBA to be held at on May , at the Bahia Ballroom of the otel Intercontinental, Ayala Avenue, Makati City. During said occasion, the rd Annual CREBA National Convention to be held in Iloilo City from Oct. 15 to 18, will be officially launched.

According to Noel Toti Cariňo, CREBA national president, RA re uires all subdivision developers to build socialized housing e uivalent to either 0 of the total project area or cost of their main projects. There are now several pending bills in Congress aiming to e tend the re uirement to developers of condominiums but with more compliance options.

But this amendment will be workable if compliance projects for condominiums will be pegged to a more reasonable uota of 10 , while for subdivisions, it is time to consider a uota of only 15 to make it more realistic and feasible for developers to comply with, Charlie orayeb, CREBA national chairman, said in an official position paper sent to members of Congress and the Senate.

The group has also been pushing to create a new socialized housing package for low-rise condomini- ums located in urban areas to ma imize the use of scarce lands and address homelessness in key cities all over the Philippines.

Akbayan Party-list Rep. Ibarra utierrez III will be the main speaker. Cariňo said that as chairman of the technical working group on balanced housing under the ouse committee on housing and urban development, Ibarra will be in the best position to provide a status update on the amendment of the law and will serve as a good sounding board to hear the proposals of the private sector.

Cariňo said that Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog will also be present as guest of honor to grace the launching of the 01 CREBA national convention which will be held in the third week of October, dubbed as the country’s national housing month.

Iloilo City was chosen as venue of one of this year’s biggest national real estate events due to its great potential as a business and investment hub, particularly for housing and real estate development, in Western isayas.

The convention organizing committee is led by Ma. Concepcion Beltran, e ecutive vice-president. The host chapter is headed by erminio Maravilla, president of CREBA-Iloilo.

For in uiries, please contact tel. nos. 0 to 5 or e-mail address creba_national@yahoo.com