House panel OKs rent control extension

MANILA, Philippines - The House committee on housing and urban development has approved a resolution that seeks to extend the government’s regulation of rent for two more years to protect home renters from sudden rental increases.

The panel, chaired by Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez, endorsed for plenary passage House Resolution 2513, which directs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) to extend its regulation on rental rates for two more years, beginning on Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2017.

The HUDCC earlier submitted to Congress a study, prepared with the help of the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute (PSRTI), recommending the extension of rental regulation and adjusting the coverage and rates of increases on rent as provided under Republic Act 9653 or Rent Control Act of 2009.

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, principal author of the measure, said rental regulation for the proposed period should use the 2014 inflation rate of 4.1 percent as basis for adjusting coverage and increases on rent for those paying a monthly rental of P3,999 or less and not more than seven percent for those paying P4,000 to P10,000 per month.

The PSRTI report reveals that based on the Family Income and Expenditure Survey conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) for the year 2012, 1.54 million families or 7.2 percent of the 21.48 million households in the country were home renters.

About 1,274,788 families or 82.5 percent of the 1.54 million renting families paid a monthly rent of less than P4,000; and of those renting less than P4,000 per month, 124,742 families or 8 percent of the total renters belonged to families earning an average monthly income of not more than P5,252.

The HUDCC had issued Resolution No 2, s. 2013, extending rental regulation until Dec. 31, 2015. It also adopted that time a status quo on rental rates.

RA 9653 granted the HUDCC the authority to continue rental regulation after Dec. 31, 2013, and determine the period of regulation and subsequent extension, if warranted, to determine the residential units covered, and to adjust the allowable limit on rental increases per annum. It also mandated HUDCC to conduct, every three years from enactment, a review of its implementation and a study on rental regulation, and to submit to Congress a recommendation on the necessity and feasibility either of a continuing regulation or deregulation.

“In case of deregulation, the HUDCC and its attached agencies shall formulate and implement a two-year transition program that will provide safeguards that will cushion the impact of a regulation-free rental housing market,” he said.

Castelo said the Rent Control Act of 2009 declared a moratorium on any rental increase since it was enacted on Dec. 31, 2009.