Binay cites need for investment-friendly business climate for housing sector

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President and Housing and Urban Development Coordination Council (HUDCC) chair Jejomar Binay has cited the need to develop an investment-friendly business climate for the housing sector.

He stressed the importance of a strong partnership between business and government, saying it is vital to ensuring economic development.

“The ideal relationship is one of cooperation and coordination, in which government and business remain in charge of their respective areas of special competence,” Binay said in a speech before members of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry over the weekend.

“Your role is to create goods and services for the economy. The role of government is to provide the best possible environment for your noble enterprise.”

The Vice President also stressed the need to seize opportunities brought about by renewed investor confidence in the country.

“We must prioritize the maximum good of all our people and our friends who want to contribute to our progress,” he said.

Binay also met with the Organization of Socialized Housing Developers of the Philippines where he again emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships.

He said the government should explore options and mechanisms that would enable the poor to buy a house with their services and the government would pay developers with tax incentives. 

He pushed for strengthened lending to and collection from the middle class, especially overseas Filipino workers.

By keeping the money circulating in the home lending system, he said more people could borrow, buy and amortize houses.

“A strong middle class-based home ownership system will enable the government, in partnership with the private sector, to address the housing needs of the less capable sectors of society,” Binay said.

He said there is a need for the development of a standardized housing components industry and encouraged inventors to make use of local and native technology that will lessen the country’s dependence on imported raw materials and open the door for its own product exports.

Meanwhile, Binay distributed land titles to beneficiary families in Brgy. Agdao as part of the HUDCC’s drive to bring housing to the less fortunate. 

He also led the awarding of Transfer Certificates of Titles to 49 family-beneficiaries after full payment of their respective loans under the Community Mortgage Program (CMP).

The CMP is an innovative mortgage financing system where residents of blighted or depressed areas or the urban poor may acquire a privately owned tract of land through the concept of community ownership.

Since the start of its implementation in 1989, the Social Housing Finance Corp., program administrator, has granted P8.5 billion in loans to secure the tenure of 218,347 informal settler families nationwide.

Of the total P412.6 million granted to Region XI to date, Davao City has been granted the highest CMP loan approval in the region, accounting for 63 percent or P262 million for 73 CMP projects.