Thursday, 11 November 2010 13:46 Max de Leon / Reporter
THE government is now lining up several schemes to achieve its target of building 150,000 socialized housing units by 2011, including those for the relocation of squatters or informal settlers.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is also housing czar, said one direction they are considering is lowering the interest rates for housing loans through Pag-Ibig that would be affordable to the masses, particularly loans in the P400,000-and-below bracket.
“Now it is 6 percent [per annum] for P400,000 and below. Maybe we could reduce that for that amount to 5 percent,” he said, adding that for loans in the P300,000 level, the plan is to bring the interest rates down to 4 percent, and then 3 percent for P200,000 and below.
Also, Binay said the government will seek the help of local government units in undertaking socialized housing projects. “The LGUs can provide the lots and we will provide the financing.”
He said this would enable the offering of housing units on the P70,000 to P80,000 price levels and lead to reducing the current backlog of about 3.7 million houses.
The government will also strictly implement the law that requires developers to allocate at least 20 percent of their total investments to socialized housing and the development of socialized housing should be spread throughout the country and not just in provinces near Metro Manila, he said.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
BLISS-type housing planned in Davao slum area
Saturday, 02 October 2010 09:30 Manuel T. Cayon / Reporter
Davao City–A group of developers under the Chamber of Real Estate Builders Association (Creba) has been discussing with the city government a plan to put up several midrise and low-cost condominium buildings in a slum area in downtown both for the slum dwellers and the workers.
Carlos Vargas, president of Creba-Davao City chapter, would not divulge yet the supposed area of the BLISS-type project, but indicated that the Davao City Planning Office has already identified it.
The area would cover 40 hectares of land mostly inhabited by squatters, and Vargas said he has already started talks with the landowner. “We would not name the place yet, because we don’t want to create more squatters now in the place.”
The project would involve putting up several buildings of about four to five stories, and the number of units would depend on how much land the landowner would allow them to develop.
“This would be a green building. We would use bricks, which are resistant to heat, and we would be putting up rain catchment, where residents would be using the rain water for most of their common household water use,” he said.
The initial design would have a 24-square-meter floor area for each unit, “but as to how many units per floor would really depend on the area, and we would try to persuade the landowner to donate at least 20 percent of this area to accommodate the squatters.”
“The landowner would have all the advantages in this arrangement. Imagine donating this portion to the city and putting the squatters in a more secured housing unit than continue holding on to the land without benefiting from it,” he said.
So far, the landowner was already informed of the tender, and “he was positive,” he said. “What we would discuss again with him is how much would he donate.”
In their talks with the city government, Vargas said the city wanted an affordable rate to ensure that squatter families and ordinary workers could afford a unit. “It wanted to offer the units for rent, at about P1,000 a month.”
“We suggested to sell it, at P250,000, or about P2,500 monthly amortization,” he added.
The project would solve at least the city’s two main problems: the housing backlog and putting the squatters and the workers in an affordable housing unit that is accessible to their work, schools and shopping places, he said.
Creba offered to build the mid-rise and low cost condominium unit for the poor a week before Mayor Sara Duterte had announced that she wanted the poor residents to acquire their own houses.
“It appeared that we were then on the same plane, and we started the talks immediately. The city government reacted positively, too,” he said.
The costing was not yet discussed nor was there any agreement. “We are currently designing the project, which we would present to the city government in two weeks.” He said the cost may only be about P12,000 per square meter.
The builders would be a consortium, composed of some members of Creba, “and ideally [it should] have one developer for each condominium building so that the units could almost simultaneously be made available.”
Davao City–A group of developers under the Chamber of Real Estate Builders Association (Creba) has been discussing with the city government a plan to put up several midrise and low-cost condominium buildings in a slum area in downtown both for the slum dwellers and the workers.
Carlos Vargas, president of Creba-Davao City chapter, would not divulge yet the supposed area of the BLISS-type project, but indicated that the Davao City Planning Office has already identified it.
The area would cover 40 hectares of land mostly inhabited by squatters, and Vargas said he has already started talks with the landowner. “We would not name the place yet, because we don’t want to create more squatters now in the place.”
The project would involve putting up several buildings of about four to five stories, and the number of units would depend on how much land the landowner would allow them to develop.
“This would be a green building. We would use bricks, which are resistant to heat, and we would be putting up rain catchment, where residents would be using the rain water for most of their common household water use,” he said.
The initial design would have a 24-square-meter floor area for each unit, “but as to how many units per floor would really depend on the area, and we would try to persuade the landowner to donate at least 20 percent of this area to accommodate the squatters.”
“The landowner would have all the advantages in this arrangement. Imagine donating this portion to the city and putting the squatters in a more secured housing unit than continue holding on to the land without benefiting from it,” he said.
So far, the landowner was already informed of the tender, and “he was positive,” he said. “What we would discuss again with him is how much would he donate.”
In their talks with the city government, Vargas said the city wanted an affordable rate to ensure that squatter families and ordinary workers could afford a unit. “It wanted to offer the units for rent, at about P1,000 a month.”
“We suggested to sell it, at P250,000, or about P2,500 monthly amortization,” he added.
The project would solve at least the city’s two main problems: the housing backlog and putting the squatters and the workers in an affordable housing unit that is accessible to their work, schools and shopping places, he said.
Creba offered to build the mid-rise and low cost condominium unit for the poor a week before Mayor Sara Duterte had announced that she wanted the poor residents to acquire their own houses.
“It appeared that we were then on the same plane, and we started the talks immediately. The city government reacted positively, too,” he said.
The costing was not yet discussed nor was there any agreement. “We are currently designing the project, which we would present to the city government in two weeks.” He said the cost may only be about P12,000 per square meter.
The builders would be a consortium, composed of some members of Creba, “and ideally [it should] have one developer for each condominium building so that the units could almost simultaneously be made available.”
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