DMCI Project Developers Inc., the real estate development arm of Consunji-led DMCI Holdings Inc., said it is developing a socialized housing project to meet the government requirements for real estate companies to build affordable homes for the people.
Alfredo R. Austria, the company’s president said, the first phase of the project covers around 4,000 units, which it would build in about four to five 18-storey buildings. Each building would have average of 800 units.
The units will be smaller at around 20 to 27 square meters, he said.
‘For 27 square meters, their regulation, you set it for P1.8 million. So, you qualify for the socialized housing program. It’s not tax incentives, but it’s actually required by developers,’ Austria said, referring to the regulation of Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development.
‘If you’re not going to do socialized housing, you’ll have to pay for socialized housing development. Instead of paying those fees, we thought of doing the socialized housing. But of course, it’s challenging because how will it be affordable? What are the ways in design and construction? We really have to sharpen our pencils to reach that price (P1.8 million).’
He said the company is doing the socialized project-its first-for several months now as ‘quality and affordability is important.’
In order for the design to be efficient, Austria said it needs several iterations. ‘Design is essentially an iterated process.’
‘So, if it’s several iterations, it takes a long time. You make a design, cost it, look at it, and if it’s a bit more expensive, you redesign it. Cost estimate it again, redesign it again.’
He said DMCI’s differentiation with other socialized houses is that theirs will have lots of open space.
‘It’s still a resort type,’ Austria said, referring to the previous condominiums that it had built.
Under the law, developers of primary residential subdivision and condominium projects must allocate a baseline percentage of their total project cost or total project area to socialized housing.
For subdivision projects, 15 percent of the main project’s cost or area should be channeled to socialized housing, and 5 percent for condominium projects.