Govt to review mass housing policy

The inter-agency Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) on Wednesday said it would review its policy on mass housing amid the revenue lesion its loose definition has caused the government.

“I want to know the definition of ‘low cost housing,’” Vice President Jejomar Binay, who heads HUDCC, told reporters in Filipino on the sidelines of the 36th Philippine Business Conference and Expo.

The HUDCC defines socialized housing as units that cost P400,000 or less; economic housing as those that cost between P401,000 and P750,000; and low cost housing, between P751,000 and P3 million.

The Board of Investments (BOI) grants income tax holiday to low cost and socialized mass housing projects under the infrastructure list of the annual Investment Priorities Plan.

The Vice President said mass housing projects still need incentives to address the housing backlog of over 3 million units, mostly for the poor and those who became homeless because of the strong typhoons that hit the country last year.

He said the HUDCC plans to put up about 50,000 housing units for the less fortunate, adding that the private sector can help finance this project through the public-private partnership setup.

A Department of Finance official earlier said the loose definition of “mass housing” has been a source of government revenue hemorrhage.

Despite an agreement that the Finance department and BOI screen projects, the source said the BOI persists in awarding tax incentives to condominium projects that sell units from P1.5 to P3 million each, which are beyond the reach of the poor.

Amid the generous tax and other incentives given mass housing projects since 2003, only less than a fifth of them have been completed and sold as of March this year, according to BOI data gathered by The Manila Times.

The data showed that 147,728 housing units were registered with the BOI from 2003 until July this year. But as of March this year, only 33,234 units have been completed, and only 30,251 units have been sold. –Ben Arnold O. De Vera Reporter, Manila Times