The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) in cooperation with the UK government is building a P10-billion, 34.55-hectare affordable, multi-tenure and climate-resilient housing project at New Clark City (NCC) in Capas, Tarlac.
Joshua Bingcang, senior vice president for BCDA Conversion and Development Group, in a webinar with local developers recently said the NCC Pilot Affordable Housing will start construction by the first half of 2023. BCDA will tap private housing developers under public-private partnership scheme in building the project.
BCDA said the project cost, including land value and price contingency, is estimated at P10 billion, of which P3 billion is for Phase 1 alone. Turnover of this phase is three years after start of construction.
Divided into five phases, the project will have around 6,000 units, consisting of apartments, condominium buildings, townhomes, single-detached houses, among others.
The whole development will feature a river park, town center, community square, sports park, pocket parks as well as mixed-use residential and commercial developments. These will be connected to bus rapid transit and metro rail transit systems, among others.
The housing program is targeted to have a wide range of residents, including government locators and private employees. Residents of the nearby municipalities of Bamban and Capas in Tarlac, and Mabalacat and and Angeles City in Pampanga, are also eyed as prospective homeowners.
BCDA said minimum-wage earners can have the opportunity to avail of these housing packages.
House or unit types are divided into socialized, economic, low cost, medium cost and open market. A residential unit may go as low as P610,000.
The housing project at NCC is one of the pilot areas of the Global Future Cities Program of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, an official development assistance technical assistance program that supports sustainable and inclusive urban development in 10 countries and 19 cities across the world.
BCDA in September 2020 signed a memorandum of understanding with the British Embassy Manila for the design of a central park and affordable housing as well as the creation of a sustainability unit in NCC. – Irma Isip