By Othel V. Campos | Mar. 31, 2014 at
12:01am [ manilastandardtoday.com ]
Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said
the government may consider tax incentives to affordable medium-rise
condominiums in Metro Manila that will house ordinary workers near factories
and offices.
“I’m biased against horizontal
development [subdivisions] because that’s a very inefficient use of land. It
takes away land that could be used for agriculture. The preference should be on
vertical [developments]. If you look at well-planned economies, they try really
to minimize horizontal development,” Domingo said over the weekend.
Domingo said the government would
continue to provide support to socialized housing and middle-income housing
projects in the upcoming 2014 Investment Priorities Plan, but new projects
should involve vertical developments.
He encouraged real estate developers
to launch low to mid-rise, low-cost and mid-range housing projects for ordinary
employees, instead of dispersing them to far-flung areas away from work sites.
“Why should we allow them to have a
three- to four-hour ride everyday? We should encourage people to be able to
live in more affordable housing closer to work. Maybe, it is now possible to do
socialized housing in a vertical platform,” he said.
He said decongesting Metro Manila by
dispersing families to the rural areas was not an option yet because of the
lack of infrastructure, such as rail lines, schools, utilities and roads.
“Until such a time that
infrastructures are in place, it doesn’t make sense to push people out [of
Metro Manila]. The cost to the economy in lost productive hours shall be
recovered if they lie near their places of work,” said Domingo.
He said the vertical design would make
it possible to build affordable housing for common workers and employees within
the highly-populated and urbanized Greater Manila Area.
Domingo said the government would
allow the private sector to take a shot at vertical socialized housing.
“The government’s role is to provide
what the private sector cannot to the extent that the private sector could fill
the gap. We should allow them to do so. We should not compete with the private
sector. The government should only step in if the private sector fails,” he
said.
A group of real estate developers and
builders earlier expressed optimism about continued government support for
socialized housing projects in the 2014 IPP.
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