Amid the increasing prices of basic commodities and services allegedly due to the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law, a lawmaker on Tuesday called on the government to freeze residential rent rates for poor and middle-income Filipino families.
Assistant Majority Leader Bernadette Herrera-Dy of Bagong Henerasyon party-list said the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) should also now consider freezing rental rates following the impact of the rising inflation, high fuel prices and peso depreciation against the US dollar.
“Consistent with the Rent Control Act of 2009 [RA 9653] which delegated to the HUDCC the setting and coverage of increases in residential rent rates, I now appeal to the HUDCC to consider the hardships of the Filipino at this time of rising inflation, high fuel prices and peso depreciation against the US dollar,” the lawmaker said.
“Most ideal is that the residential rent rates of all kinds of units of the poor and middle class are frozen at current levels because any rent hikes at this time will just inflict more suffering,” Herrera-Dy said.
However, the lawmaker said if the HUDCC determine that rent rate hikes are necessary, the rent increase should not be more than the 2018 annual inflation rate and should within allowable rent rate hikes.
“If statistical analysis, field reports and management decision of the HUDCC determine that rent rate hikes are necessary, the rate hike should not be more than the 2018 annual inflation rate based on 2012 prices as determined by the Philippine Statistics Authority [PSA],” Herrera-Dy said. The lawmaker, citing the latest information from the government economic experts and officials, said inflation this year could be 4 percent to 5 percent.
In the past, she added, the HUDDCC stratified the allowable rent rate hikes, but the coverage back then was limited to these monthly rent brackets: up to P3,999 (4-percent allowable rent hike) and P4,000 to P10,000 (7-percent allowable rent hike).
Herrera-Dy, likewise, proposed to HUDCC three tiers of rent bracketing and corresponding allowable rent increase applicable nationwide: Up to P4,000 per month rent (3-percent maximum allowable rent increase); P4,001 to P10,000 per month rent (4-percent maximum allowable rent increase); and P10,000 to P20,000 per month rent (5-percent maximum allowable rent increase). “This I believe is fair to most Filipino families who rent apartments and other residential units, but still allows landlords to recover from the cost of inflation,” she said.
“Here in Quezon City, the usual one-room or studio apartments with bathroom go for P10,000 and below, but for two or more bedrooms fit for the usual Filipino family of five to six members, monthly rentals are P11,000 to P20,000. An Internet scan of apartments available on a popular web site confirms this,” she added.
The HUDCC has extended the rent control regulation for residential units occupied by low-income brackets for only two years until December 2017 to protect poor and middle-income families from unreasonable rent increases.
The rent control regulation was extended pursuant to the authority given to the HUDCC under Republic Act 9653, or the Rent Control Act of 2009, to determine whether to continue or discontinue the regulation based on a study of its implementation and to adjust the yearly rate increase accordingly.
Herrera-Dy said a study undertaken by the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute of the PSA found that 82 percent of the renters in the country are renting at less than P4,000 per month.
Based on the requirement of the rent control law to consider inflation rate in determining any adjustment of the rental rates, she said that the average inflation rate in 2014 is at 4.1 percent, which was used as basis for the annual increase in rent for families renting at below P4,000 per month.
The said cap for the increase in rent will benefit the entire low-income family renters and is consistent with the intent of RA 9653, Herrera-Dy added.