MANILA, Philippines—Property developers on Saturday sought the lifting of the ban on the conversion of agricultural lands to residential and industrial projects, saying it would imperil the government’s plan to build one million homes for the poor in the next five years.

The Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Associations Inc. (Creba) said it would be forced to petition the Supreme Court to lift the moratorium on land conversion if it was not lifted by the Department of Agrarian Reform.

“The progress of the whole country is being held hostage by the DAR because of the ban on conversion,” Creba national president Reghis Romero II told reporters after the Sulo Hotel press forum Saturday.

Romero told the forum the ban was tying up the government’s plan to build one million housing units for government personnel, workers and the underprivileged in the next five years, and to offset the 1.5-million unit backlog.

The government needs some 1,500 hectares of land to meet its target of building 200,000 homes a year in the next five years, he said.

Romero said some agricultural lands had been reclassified for residential and industrial use by local governments, but their conversion could not be completed because of the ban.

To effect land conversion, a license must be secured from the DAR.

In mid-April, Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman imposed an indefinite moratorium on the conversion of agricultural lands to real estate development in the face of the rice shortage.

The moratorium was intended to pave the way for the review and study of conversion guidelines to address the “unabated conversion of prime agricultural lands for real estate development.”

Experts had blamed the dwindling rice lands, caused by the conversion of these lands into subdivisions and golf courses, for the shortage of rice supply in the market.

Romero said he had written the DAR to lift the “unnecessary” moratorium, or else, he would seek the intervention of the courts.