The Chamber of Real Estate & Builders’ Associations Inc. (CREBA) said housing production should pick up to at least 500,000 units per year to address homelessness within two decades.
CREBA president Noel Carino emphasized this as part of the group’s five-point agenda for housing covering shelter finance, land access and governance at the first Visayas-Mindanao Regional Housing and Real Estate Conference and Expo from April 26 to 28, 2023 at the SM Trade Hall in General Santos City.
Cariño said CREBA’s agenda have been drafted into various bills and policy proposals to either amend, rationalize, streamline or beef up existing laws and policies to help achieve that housing production rate.
The goal is to produce 500,000 units annually or a total of 10 million homes in 20 years.
Carino said two of these proposals have been enacted into law, namely the Balanced Housing Program Amendment Act of 2016 or Republic Act (RA) 10884 and the creation of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) in 2019 or RA 11201.
He said the resulting regulations and programs continue to be closely monitored by the Chamber.
Lapsed into law on July 17, 2016, RA 10884 amended provisions of RA 7279 on balanced housing which also mandated not only property firms with subdivision projects to develop an area for socialized housing. This means owners and/or developers of the condominium projects are also covered by the Balanced Housing Program.
RA 11201 created DHSUD by merging the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board to become the primary national government entity responsible for the management of housing, human settlement and urban development.
According to Carino, CREBA has recently strengthened its foothold in the Visayas and Mindanao r by establishing new chapters in various parts of the Davao, Surigao, Misamis and Agusan regions. – Irma Isip
