THE housing sector is not experiencing a crisis despite the challenges of helping Filipinos attain their dreams of owning a home, according to the chief of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD).
DHSUD Secretary Eduardo D. Del Rosario told the BusinessMirror that amid financial constraints, the DHSUD has already accomplished 84 percent of its Philippine Development Plan (PDP) target this year.
In the first six months of the year, DHSUD and the Key Shelter Agencies (KSAs) were able to finance and produce 87,204 housing units out of the 124,322 PDP target.
“The Housing Sector is not experiencing a crisis but there are challenges for us to adequately address the country’s housing need,” Del Rosario told the BusinessMirror. “In fact, it remains vibrant despite the Covid-19 pandemic”
Based on the DHSUD data obtained by the BusinessMirror, a total of 456,850 housing units have been financed and completed by the government between 2019 and the first half of 2021. The target is 528,809 between 2019 and 2021.
Del Rosario said the total housing units financed and constructed reached 224,987 units in 2019. This is a 99.89-percent accomplishment rate.
In 2020, the DHSUD Chief said a total of 144,659 housing units were financed representing 80.72 percent of the 179,215 unit target. DHSUD earlier said lockdowns affected construction of government housing projects last year.
He added that the latest report from the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) showed it earned P16.1 billion during the first six months of 2021. This represented a 14 percent higher than the same period in 2020.
“We are also in close coordination with the private developers to continuously craft policies, rules and regulations to maintain a vibrant housing sector and we remain optimistic that together, we can hurdle the challenges,” Del Rosario told BusinessMirror.
“Housing is capital intensive and needs funding from the government, as well as the private sector for DHSUD to perform at the optimum level, especially in relocating ISFs [informal settler families] living in danger zones to safer grounds,” he added.
Del Rosario said closing the housing backlog is difficult since this means allocating a budget of P50 billion annually. But, he said, the housing sector only receives 10 percent or around P4 billion to P5 billion annually.
Apart from the budgetary constraints, efforts to increase housing production to around 15 percent became a real challenge during the pandemic. Del Rosario said pre-pandemic, the government is able to increase housing production by 15 percent annually between 2016 and 2019.
This, Del Rosario said, is where the private sector’s help is much needed. He said the concentration of housing development is in Metro Manila, Calabarzon, and Central Luzon as well as other urban centers nationwide such as Cebu, Davao, and Cagayan de Oro.
Nonetheless, Del Rosario said the private sector has been very active in these areas. However, he admitted that Metro Manila does not have enough land to build more housing units.
This is the reason for DHSUD’s efforts to encourage vertical housing projects in Metro Manila. The government, Del Rosario said, is also turning to the private sector in terms of land banking because they have more financial head room to spend on this.
“Maganda ang housing sector, masyadong active at masasabi natin na, despite the Covid-19 situation, marami tayong mga kababayan ngayon ang bumibili at nangangailangan ng pabahay [The housing sector is vibrant despite the Covid-19 situation. There are a lot of Filipinos who are buying and are in need of houses],” Del Rosario said.
“Siguro, nakita nila it’s better [to] buy housing units (than) just saving it [money] in their banks [Maybe they saw that it’s better to buy housing units than just parking money in banks],” he added.
During the pre-State of the Nation Address (SONA) briefing, Del Rosario said this target could even be exceeded given that the department has been able to assist 928,000 Filipinos to have their own home as of March.
Del Rosario said this represents 82 percent of the target. With housing construction continuing even after March 2021, he said more homes will be included in the list which could allow the DHSUD to exceed the PDP target of 1.1 million houses by 2022.
Del Rosario said overall, the DHSUD considered shelter or housing as a right. But also recognize that not all Filipinos would like to be homeowners.
He noted that a recent survey showed that 81 percent of Filipinos would like to have a house of their own while 19 percent would prefer to rent.
Del Rosario said housing construction is an important ingredient in the country’s recovery from the pandemic. He noted that building homes will not only meet the needs of Filipinos but also boost economic activity.
Housing construction, he said, is a pump primer of the economy. Del Rosario said housing construction has 80 allied sectors and “hundreds of thousands of the workforce” are involved in building homes.
The sector’s link to several industries as well as employing workers are crucial in the country’s recovery from the pandemic.