AS DEVELOPERS pledge to boost the real estate industry and address the ballooning 6.5 million housing backlog, property sector stakeholders urge the government to streamline real estate business processes.
Doing such would make the industry more productive and create ripple effects to the economy, in forms of consumption, business and jobs, said Filipino Homes founder Anthony Gerard Leuterio.
“In every house you create, there are 60 jobs that are generated,” said Leuterio on the sidelines of the recently concluded Filipino Homes’ National Real Estate Convention in JPark Island Resort and Waterpark on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023, and Monday, Oct. 23.
Leuterio said a developer will need to secure 172 signatures to develop a subdivision as opposed to other countries’ requirements of only 10 signatures. It also takes a maximum of two years to complete the processing.
Leuterio, whose company Filipino Homes has been actively helping developers sell their projects, is appealing to the government to streamline the processes so developers can fast-track the development of their projects and address the ballooning housing backlog. Those in marketing will also consistently have ongoing projects to promote and sell.
“We need to loosen the regulations because developers are so excited to bounce back and every time they bounce back they create so many houses and it is all good for the economy,” he added.
Subdivision and Housing Development Authority national chairperson Arlene Keh said the housing sector plays a critical role in the country’s growth, contributing around five percent to local employment.
She said that for every P1 the industry invests, P3.2 goes around the economy.
“The industry is growing and rebounding. A lot of developers are very positive about starting new projects now. We also see that the financial industry, banks, and Pag-Ibig Fund, for example, are open to giving new loans. It’s opening up and hopefully, this will all help affordability,” she said.
The annual convention that was attended by 700 top real estate brokers and sales persons across the country reportedly “sold at least P39 million within the fiscal year, and some top sellers had even crossed the billion-peso mark,” according to Filipino Homes’ Facebook post on Tuesday, Oct. 24.
Leuterio said 2024 is going to be a boom year for real estate to be driven by strong inflows of overseas Filipino remittances.
“2024 is an exciting year for us,” he said, noting that remittances finance the purchase of housing, among other basic necessities.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that personal remittances from overseas Filipinos in the first eight months of this year reached $24.01 billion, up by 2.9 percent from the $23.34 billion in the same period in 2022.
The growth in cash remittances from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore contributed mainly to the increase in remittances in the first eight months.
Moreover, 12 of the country’s top developers also attended the convention and briefed the delegates of their respective upcoming projects in the next five years.
Leuterio said the discussion is timely especially since the delegates present are the top performing real estate professionals of Filipino Homes.
“We’ve seen so many Filipinos going abroad now and so in the next three to five years, there will be a spike in buying (of properties) again. We need to prepare because overseas Filipino workers (OFW) still prefer to invest in the Philippines,” he said.
Leuterio said that even with the global economic uncertainty due to wars happening between Israel and Hamas and Ukraine and Russia, OFWs remain to be a growth driver for the real estate sector.
“There’s uncertainty around us. There are wars happening. But what we know is that when Filipinos come home, they will invest, buy properties and generate jobs,” he said. “So we need more products to sell.”