Posted on March 19, 2014 11:25:55 PM [
Businessworld Online ]
CEBU CITY -- Demand for residential
condominium and subdivision projects here will continue to be robust despite
the launch of numerous housing projects recently, the Housing and Land Use
Regulatory Board (HLURB) said.
“We frequently speak with developers
and the fact that they are bullish on Cebu means that there is still ample
demand. Their marketing research has shown that there is still much to tap in
the region,” Alixes Roy T. Lopez, HLURB regional head, said in an interview.
The HLURB regional office, which
covers Central and Eastern Visayas regions, approved 14 condominium projects in
2012 and 15 projects in 2013. The project cost, however, went down to P4.8
billion in 2013 from P5.1 billion in 2012 as developers focused on providing
low-cost units. Most projects are in Cebu.
The total number of subdivision
development projects, on the other hand, went down to 25 in 2013 from 35 in
2012. Mr. Lopez blamed the decrease on the high prices of construction
materials and high cost of raw land.
Despite this, Mr. Lopez said he is
confident that the demand will rise, especially in Eastern Visayas, where
reconstruction is ongoing after typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan).
“The demand for projects will only go
up as developers are eager to compete with each other. Even though there are
now many players, especially in Cebu, there is still demand in the market,” Mr.
Lopez said.
He noted that some condominium
developers are diversifying their projects due to tight competition in this
segment.
“Commercial condominium demand for
Metro Cebu is sharply rising,” he added.
Mr. Lopez said developers are drawn to
Cebu because of its strategic location and greatly reduced bureaucratic red
tape.
“For our office, we have streamlined
the evaluation to approval and licensing process from five months to just 21
working days,” he said.
“All we require is complete basic
requirements. Once we see that some requirements are lacking, we stop the
evaluation process and send a notice of lacking requirements to developers,” he
added.
For subdivision projects, local
government units have boosted the HLURB’s processes by also approving projects
in just one month given complete basic requirements.
By 2017, Mr. Lopez expects a fully
integrated “new urbanism” philosophy in Central Visayas, referring to more
green technologies and more open spaces.
“By 2017, we expect housing projects
to be model communities-within-communities, providing modern amenities amidst a
backdrop of natural splendor. Competition between developing firms is making
that a reality and the people of the region are benefiting,” he said. -- John
Paolo G. Bago
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