Condominium developers tapped for gov’t socialized housing program

House of Representatives. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Condominium developers are being tapped to help in the government’s Urban Development and Housing Program by requiring them to allot at least five percent of their real estate for socialized housing.

This is mandated in House Bill 4116 that was passed on third and final reading at the House of Representatives, amending Republic Act 7279, which requires subdivision owners to allot 20 percent of the property to socialized housing.

Under HB 4116, condominium developers will allocate an area for affordable units “equivalent to at least 5 percent of the total condominium area” while the remaining 15 percent will be shouldered by subdivision owners.

The bill will “accelerate the provision of affordable socialized housing nationwide and provide the underprivileged and homeless Filipinos the opportunity to own a house,” said the bill’s author Negros Occidental Representative Alfredo Benitez, chairman of the committee on housing and urban development.

The bill also allows developers to have joint ventures as long as they are separately able to comply with the requirements for socialized housing.

The National Economic and Development Authority and the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council are tasked to determine the socialized housing prices to be revised every three years.

Both agencies are also mandated to adjust the percentage of the subdivision area for socialized housing every five years from the enforcement of the bill. A law will have to be passed by Congress for proposals to lower the percentage.

The bill also sets the construction of educational facilities in the area.

Violators may be penalized P10 million for the first offense and a revocation of the business license for the second offense.

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