Urban Slum Areas

[bustero]

Payatas: From dump to model housing

Posted 09:46pm (Mla time) Mar 06, 2005
By D.J. Yap
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A24 of the March 7, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

THROW a good idea in Payatas and dump a load of goodwill and what used to be notorious for garbage would be known for gold-hearts of gold, that is.

Plans are afoot to convert a portion of the dump in Quezon City into a model community of urban poor folk who scavenge there.

Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has signed a memorandum of understanding for the "Payatas Ecoville Project," a housing program for scavengers in Barangay Payatas.

About 900 low-cost houses would be built on a 7.5-hectare property near the place where garbage form mountains of urban refuse.

Private sector funding

Each house would cost around P70,000 and would be funded by the private sector.

The project was made possible through the donation by Madrigal matriarch Do¤a Consuela Madrigal of the property to the Quezon City government.

Once completed, the housing project would transform the Payatas area into a model community with basic amenities such as cemented
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roads, a school, a church, community center and recreational facilities.

The Quezon City government would provide the development of the road's right of way and participate in the selection of the program beneficiaries.

Ramon Asprer, head of the city's urban poor affairs office, said priority would be given to families living along the danger zone of the dumpsite.

The danger zone includes fringes of the mountains of garbage, which are in constant danger of collapsing and burying hundreds of settlers.

July 2000 avalanche

On July 10, 2000, a wall of garbage fell on about 500 shanties in Sitio Lupang Pangako on the eastern side of the dump. More than 229 people were killed and about 670 families had to be relocated.

The accident site has since been closed and topped with soil as part of the city government's efforts to redevelop the area.

One such development is the building of a P12-million methane-fed power plant that proponents say can produce one megawatt of electricity enough to power 2,000 households.

The power plant may even be tapped to supply electricity to the new housing project.

The Madrigal Foundation would provide the funding requirements for the development of the housing project, which would be built in cooperation with partners from the private sector.

Other partner agencies in the project are Habitat for Humanity Philippine Foundation Inc., Ayala Land, Makati Development Corp., IPM Construction and Development Corp., and the Ina ng Lupang Pangako Parish under the Novaliches Diocese.

[bustero]

The high rises painted in white primer is the megaworld project in the Fort. These are the ones besides Bellagio.

[thomasian]

They are named Forbes Town Heights.

[renell]

wow I didn't expect it to be thattall Not that it's any bad.

Woot woot more urban low cost projects. Hopefully we get to see the mass low to medium rise housing and residential complex that I feel is an idea that hasn't been properly tried yet.

[ryanr]

Nice...but the government still needs to step up its programs to provide low cost housing for the urban poor. Gawad Kalinga's housing communities are also considered low-low cost housing right?

[bustero]

Gawad Kalinga is low cost but I beleive their projects are horizontal. We need to give the people with lower incomes choices of where to stay inthe city so they don't need to commute for such a long time. If they prefer to live in a bigger house in cavite and laguna and commute two hours then that is their choice but there will be people who want to walk or commute for only 30 minutes and earn mimimum or double minimum wage , what are the options for them.

If you check out Singapore Housing Development Board and Hong Kong Housing Authority, you'll get an idea of where this will go. As incomes rise the ability to utilize less space in the city and therefore higher will come. We already start to see it with the GA towers and the citylands. The next quest will be how to make it more livable.

[bustero]

This is where the future is going for now, walkups in a big part of the metropolis, with high rises closer to the center.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES | Thursday, March 10, 2005
More middle-class units needed to reduce backlog
By ROULEE JANE F. CALAYAG, Reporter

The exodus from the provinces to the cities has opened up a new market for the property sector.

With more rural folk opting to move to the city to work, the demand for modern housing enclaves has become pressing, especially due to the expanding middle class.

The housing backlog is estimated at around two million units.

Francisco J. Buencamino, president of Breezewoods Development Corp., said the backlog increases at a rate of 400,000 units annually.

"The continuous growth of the economy has enlarged our middle class, boosting the demand for higher-quality residential homes," said Mr. Buen-camino in a statement.

He urged housing developers to tap this segment by offering more affordable units with access to commercial business districts and which suit the longing of the middle class for a healthy lifestyle, consistent with the environment they were used to in the provinces.

"As more from the provinces become office workers in Metro Manila, developers need to design for them houses in a serene environment, which is at the same time close to business centers where they work," he said, citing Marikina City, which won the nod of the World Health Organization for being one of the world's healthy cities, as a good example to build modern enclaves for this market.

Marikina, known for its well-planned urban setting and green surrounding, is a few minutes away from business districts, industrial centers, shopping malls, schools, and hospitals in the neighboring cities of Quezon, Pasig, Mandaluyong and Antipolo.

For their part, Mr. Buencamino said his company has developed a low-cost condominium complex in Marikina to provide middle-class urban settlers with the serenity of the rural environment.

The project, known as Breeze-woods Royale, is a four-storey building composed of 70 housing units and 10 commercial shops that include a pharmacy, convenience store, bookstore, and laundry center.

Breezewoods Royale, the only medium-rise building in its vicinity along Katipunan St. near the Social Security System Village, is expected to be completed by November. The construction began in December.

"On top of being affordable and accessible to life's essentials, Breeze-woods Royale is a product of emergency preparedness planning. Certainly, the project allows residents to celebrate life to the fullest," said Mr. Buencamino.

Office workers and employees in Marikina, Quezon, Pasig, Manda-luyong and Antipolo are Breeze-woods' target market. Each unit, measuring 35 square meters, sells from P1.1 million to P1.2 million.

Breezewoods has partnered with Pag-IBIG (Home Development Mutual Fund) to enable buyers to pay the unit through a monthly participation of P10,000 to P12,000.

"We are focusing on meeting the demand for low-cost and medium-cost housing as we believe that high-end residential projects address only a very limited market of the few affording sector of the population. We want to stay in the industry where the demand is," Mr. Buencamino said.

The company, incorporated in 1995, developed the 1,300-unit Breezewoods Homes in Bacoor, Cavite and another project in Pampanga.

[renell]

^ sounds ideal for the hard working, good earning worker and his/her family.

[Mr. Spaghetti]

Originally Posted by boybaha

I wonder if a scheme like they have in NY exists in the Philippines. In NYC, whenever land is rezoned for residential development, a percentage of the space opened up is promised to low to lower middle income families.

this is an excellent point. i used to live in chicago where they had built community housing for the poor (cabrini green), and failed miserably. the reason? misery loves company. hanging around other poor people perpetuated this mentality that the status quo is ok, and that the govt will take care of them. this was not helping them at all! they always assumed they could rely on the government for these handouts and it wasn't inspiring them to move on to bigger and better things for their lives and the lives of their children. think of the company you keep and social mores...to these ppl, there are a lot of drugs, alcohol, gangs, and violence in their environment.

within the past few years, the city has torn down these establishments and has implemented mixed-use policies where a certain percentage of new residential projects had to be set aside for low-income housing--and has done so with great success. the poor people would interact with the middle-class and inspire them to get to that next level. they would no longer be in the discouraging environment they used to be in where they were surrounded by the evil trappings of drugs, alcohol, etc.

on a more personal note, i have owned 4 apartment buildings in the poorest and dangerous areas of chicago. i have heard so many horror stories of tenants of slum-lords like myself...a lot of these poor ppl get rent vouchers from the govt where they identify a place for their families to live, and their rent is paid--guaranteed by the govt so there is no chance of default. i had a few tenants like that. some landlords would only target those poor ppl that didn't have jobs b/c if you had a job, the govt would only supplement a portion of the rent, and the poor person would have to pay the rest of the rent. in this case, if the poor person had a job, there was that potential for them to default their portion of the rent...this is why a lot of landlords choose to rent their units out to the ones without jobs--to ensure the rent is paid in full every month! what does that teach these people? what are we encouraging?

i don't believe in this type of establishment. i'm more of a proponent of mixed-use housing. i've seen it work.

[bustero]

By law all real estate developers must set aside 20% of land or project value to do socialized housing. This is the cheapest end of the market (200,000Php or about 3800$ right now). No one really puts in any socialized with mid market here as it's impossible to have an economic project within the city. (So far unless there's a really bright guy out there with some good ideas). I understand that the Navotas -Smokey Mountain reclamation was initially succesful ,in fact lauded, but lack of social support has turned it into a US "projects" type problem i.e. Cabrini Green (wasn't this razed already though Mr. S?). The ironic part is that people who can pay the for the 200T means they are gainfully employed and would not neccesarily be part of the poor (as definded by Phil. Dept. of Social Welfare and Dev't) as they are actually gainfully emplyed in the formal sector to even get Home Dev't Mutual Fund financing ( our Fannie Mae). Anyway subsequent development specially by the government (the private sector projects are always much better for some reason, perhaps because they use the market mechanism which eliminates rent seeking individuals) will now focus on the soft portion as well i.e. organiztion into neighborhood associations , livelihood support , etc. similar to a normal community.

[Mr. Spaghetti]

yeah, they tore down some parts of cabrini green, but some buildings are still there. it is TOTALLY different now...still a little rough, but you can tell it's changed dramatically.

i've had some tenants that were on some sort of govt. assistance program and some were really striving towards getting themselves out. some were talkers, as in they wanted to, but never made the full effort required to pull themselves out of their situation. some didn't deserve the help they got. obviously you want to invest the resources in the case of those that will help themselves and have a high probability of success. i think a group-based approach would work best in this case where a group sponsors the individual/family. the government awards funds or resources to the entire group if the sponsored individual/family achieves their goals (get a job, save a certain amount of money through their job, get a college degree, etc). this would make the group encourage the individual/family to succeed, and everyone benefits. after the individual/family succeeds, the group sponsors the next individual/family. think of it as a big tightly-knit support network.

this model has worked in bangladesh.

[bustero]

I totally agree. You're reffering to the Grameen Bank, which provides microcredit and uses communities to guarantee individual members of the community. Through Peer pressure they've managed to be quite effective. This community based model should work very well with housing projects because in the end that is exactly what they are communities! Their hands need to beheld in the beginning but after a while they should be able to take off on their own.

Am curious Spaghetti Man, What sort of apartments do you have (6 story walk ups , converted townhouses, etc)? Are these big (what sort of area in sq.ft and number of rooms) ? and what sort of rent do you get for these things?

I understand from anecdotes from friends in the industry that these can be quite profitable with good returns but are also a bit on the risky side.

[Mr. Spaghetti]

Originally Posted by bustero

I totally agree. You're reffering to the Grameen Bank, which provides microcredit and uses communities to guarantee individual members of the community. Through Peer pressure they've managed to be quite effective. This community based model should work very well with housing projects because in the end that is exactly what they are communities! Their hands need to beheld in the beginning but after a while they should be able to take off on their own.

Am curious Spaghetti Man, What sort of apartments do you have (6 story walk ups , converted townhouses, etc)? Are these big (what sort of area in sq.ft and number of rooms) ? and what sort of rent do you get for these things?

I understand from anecdotes from friends in the industry that these can be quite profitable with good returns but are also a bit on the risky side.

wow...i thought i was like the only filipino that knows about that! i'm impressed! i bought the book on grameen and reading it right now.

i owned 3-2flats and 1-4 flat, for a total of 4 buildings and 10 living spaces. it was very risky, but there are so many good deals in the poor areas of chicago, it was hard to pass up. i don't know if i'd do that again...i'd probably do things way differently, but it really was a big pain. for a 5 br, i was getting $1500/month. for a 3 br, i was getting $850/month...it really varies based on the market and how desperate you are to get a tenant in there. i was grossing about $5-6k/month in rents and taking home maybe $1200-$2000/month depending on what expenses i incurred (on some buildings i had to pay for heat...imagine the heating bills in chicago...i had a bill for $6000 once)

i have so many horror stories of being a slumlord. here's an example...one of my buildings was unoccupied for several months. it was broken into, and they stole the cabinets, toilets, fixtures, and even the DUCTWORK! i mean, how do you get into such a small space and get all that shit out?!? by the time i was done fixing everything, i spent another $10k. there are so many stories. if youre interested, i can post them here or in another thread...there's the sexually active 13 yr old; so many stories on shootings; a few stories on one of my tenants that is a 30 yr old mom with 5 kids; the pitbull; etc.

the money was OK...i could probably buy more and then move out to the phils while a property manager managed these things here and live a good life out there, but i went through a divorce and had to sell them all. all of this by the time i was 28. i just turned 28 in dec, when i was in the phils.

i have plans to relocate to the phils within 5 years, so hopefully that book on microlending will give me some good insights on things to do in the phils.

[bustero]

Actually many filipinos know Grameen. One thing good here in the Phil is the numerous civic minded individuals who work with NGO's and Grameen is such a succesful model. Imagine working in the poorest countries in the world. Magpapautang! Wow this is tough yet they did it. If you're interested in the subject matter you can read Prashahads (something like that can't remember the spelling): The Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid. His thesis you don't need to mollycoddle the poor they are an enormous market in their own right and subject to the correct product or service you offer they will beat a path to your door.

You can also get similar returns in the Philippines, and while people get distracted over the exchange rate, it's been shown that over the long run (decades) this will not matter as we require higher rates of returns in developing markets anyway.

One market not mentioned in this forum is Dormitories which we looked at. Aside from the students there is young working class. Huge market with many yuppies unable to rent aprtments on their own so they need to share. Returns are very steady and good. Perhaps we should start a thread on this.

[bustero]

Bump, anything new on this?

VP Noli hails rise of low-cost condos

Vice President Noli De Castro, concurrent Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), said that the growing number of low-cost condos spells good news for the housing sector, and for families looking for affordable in-city dwelling.

He said this during the turnover ceremonies at the Vista De Lagos Villas, a condominium project in Barangay Tuktukan, Taguig developed by DMCI Homes through the Medium/High Rise Building (MHRB) program of the Pag-IBIG Fund.

“I am glad to see that despite the scarcity of available land in Metro Manila, we are still able to respond to the need for houses of city workers by building more MHRBs,” De Castro said.

Vista De Lago is one of two projects completed by DMCI Homes under the MHRB program.

Pag-IBIG Fund has approved a total amount of P128 million for the completion of 128 units in Vista De Lago. The entire project consists of a total of seven condominium buildings, with 439 units ranging in size from 47 to 131 square meters.

The Fund approved the said project on January 2004, and has released an initial P45 million which has been fully paid as of January this year.

De Castro lauded Pag-IBIG for successfully implementing the MHRB program, which was launched to provide a ready inventory of affordable condominium units to eligible members of the Fund in the Metro Manila area and highly urbanized cities.

It has approved 29 projects to date, with loans amounting to over P4.2 billion, which will benefit a total of 6,055 households.

De Castro also commended DMCI, calling it “one of the government’s active private partners in developing housing projects for middle income families.”

DMCI Homes has a number of condominium, townhouse and subdivision projects in Metro Manila.

At the same time, he called on DMCI Homes and other developers to undertake more projects outside of Metro Manila.

“While it is good to provide affordable in-city housing through MHRB, we should also look beyond Metro Manila, in support of President Arroyo’s 10-point agenda, which includes establishing new centers for housing, business and government in other parts of the country,” De Castro said. (end)

[bustero]

Global ties will boostreal estate sector – VP Noli

Vice President Noli De Castro, Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), said today that the Philippine real estate sector stands to benefit as local industry players and related government agencies cemented ties with the International Real Estate Federation.

Vice President De Castro made this statement during the induction of officers of the Philippine Chapter of the Federation—known internationally by its French acronym, FIABCI.

De Castro, along with FIABCI World President-Elect Dato’ Alan Tong Kok Mau, inducted the founding officers of FIABCI Philippines International, Inc. in a ceremony held at the Manila Hotel

The Vice President said that FIABCI-Philippines gives local real estate practitioners as well as government agencies “a link to a world of information, contacts and new opportunities.”

He pointed out that the formation of the chapter is consistent with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s shelter policy of creating “an environment where the private real estate sector can take the lead in undertaking actual housing projects nationwide.”

“For the government housing sector, being part of FIABCI-Philippines gives us a great opportunity to learn from the experience of other countries. At the same time, we will be able to share our own experiences, and make our own contribution to the growing body of global knowledge on housing, real estate and the economy,” De Castro further stated.

FIABCI-Philippines was officially organized on November 12, 2003 by the Chamber of Real Estate and Builder’s Association, Inc. (CREBA) upon the invitation of then FIABCI World President Daniel Teo.

The founding officers of the Philippine chapter include CREBA’s Florentino Dulalia Jr. as President and Pag-IBIG President and CEO Romero Quimbo as Vice President.

The chapter’s pioneering members include 30 real estate and property companies and three shelter agencies under HUDCC, namely the Pag-IBIG Fund, National Housing Authority (NHA) and National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC)

Based in Paris, FIABCI is a 52 year-old worldwide network of professionals involved in the property industry. It operates chapters in over 60 countries, embracing 3,200 individual members, 20 academic members and 100 different national professional associations.

[renell]

regarding post 57.... i guess we wouldnt get much internet adverts for it... cause it's low-cost. nor would there be much ads at all.......would there?

[bustero]

Renell, you'll actually find it in the dmci website. I've seen it there. Vista del Lago is not that inexpensive, it's actually around 2-3m so strictly not low cost.

What happens is that when one starts a low cost project, many developers see the huge demand and realize they can up the price as what's the use of selling out so quickly when it will still take quite a while to construct, get the extra profit if you can. It's a market thing.

[bustero]

Can you give me feedback on what you guys think of this?

It's a 3 x 5 meter floor area with a 3 x 3.7 m loft. total 26sq.m.

If it was in Makati how much do you think it should be worth. Php 1.5m lets say inner makati.

or if it's 3 x 4 meter but add your own loft but lets say it's in Burgos Area will it be a good price at Php 1m.

This will be a finished unit.

[weirdo]

maganda. mejo masikip. pero maluwag na talaga compared sa iba para sa price and location niya.