By Mary Ann Ll. Reyes
The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines - Emphasizing the need to create a Department of Housing, the founder and chairman emeritus of one of the country’s most influential trade organizations has also urged whoever will be named government housing czar to work closely with the private sector and to have a firm resolve to address the country’s burgeoning housing problem.
In an interview with The STAR, lawyer Manuel Serrano of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Associations (CREBA) emphasized that the mistake of all previous administrations is that there has been no firm decision to really address the housing dilemma. “And this is the reason why government does not have the funds to solve the housing backlog, especially mass housing,” he said.
Serrano, who is also the founder and chairman of Business Against Graft and Corruption (BAGCOR) and the Subdivision Owners Association of the Philippines (now Social Housing Developers Association or SHDA), said the country currently has a housing shortage of about seven million units.
“There should be around 500,000 units being built every year but what is actually being built is just 30,000 per year. If we consider that the number of households is increasing by about 250,000 to 280,000 families each year, not only are we not addressing the annual requirement, we are also not solving the backlog which is growing and growing,” he pointed out.
Widely acknowledged as the real estate guru given his 48 years experience in all aspects of real estate (starting with his first project in 1962 – Better Living Subdivision in Parañaque), Serrano noted that government may not realize it but the real estate sector is the major economic pump-primer and could take the country out of the economic rut it is currently immersed in.
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