Ayala Land evasive over 20% mass shelter rule

By Ayen Infante

07/24/2008

Prime property developer Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) said it is maintaining a commitment to devote 20 percent of its mass housing projects to socialized housing in locations that it could not provide, however.

The Board of Investments (BoI) had said it would revisit a requirement for property firms availing of state incentives to set aside 20 percent of their projects for mass housing.

Ayala Land senior vice president head for residential business group Bobby Dy, in a press briefing yesterday for Alveo Land Corp. which was formerly named Community Innovations, said the company would always comply with the required 20 percent allocations for socialized housing for every mass housing venture it would undertake.

The compliance should fall under the Ayala’s mass housing arm, the Avida Land Corp. with most projects located in the South including the Santa Rosa project that offered 350 house-and-lot packages to company employees.

Avida’s first mass housing project was the six adjacent residential communities within a 120-hectare property covering the municipalities of Santa Rosa and Binan Laguna. These were just among the mass housing projects of Avida.

Mass housing projects should carry a price range not more than P3 million per unit.

These projects enjoy tax breaks granted by the BoI and must allot 20 percent of the total costs to socialized housing projects which price ranges from P300,000 and below.

Under Republic Act 7279 or otherwise known as the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, balanced housing development program shall include a system to be specified in the Framework plan whereby developers of proposed subdivision projects shall be required to develop an area for socialized housing equivalent to at least 20 percent of the total subdivision area or total subdivision project cost, at the option of the developer, within the same city or municipality, whenever feasible, and in accordance with the standards set by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board and other existing laws.

Despite the earlier explanations made by the BoI that all mass housing projects approved for fiscal incentives are required to engage in socialized housing, no registrations that were previously approved have mentioned anything about their plans to also venture in socialized housing.

It was only recently that the BoI stated there was an existing policy and even highlighted this under the 2008 Investment Priorities Plan.

When asked where are these socialized housing projects that Avida should hand over to provide mass shelter, Dy said “these are scattered all over the country,” and did mention only one, the Sampaguita Village in Cavite.

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