PHINMA CoHo urges private sector to join efforts to close housing gap in the Philippines

PHINMA COHO CORP., the community housing arm of PHINMA Corp., said the private sector can leverage policies and partnerships to make housing more accessible and help address the country’s growing housing backlog.

“The private sector can influence policies and foster partnerships that make housing more accessible, particularly for low-income workers, through collaboration with the academe, government agencies, and civil society,” PHINMA Community Housing (CoHo) President and Chief Executive Officer Luis Oquiñena said in a statement.

Property firms must adopt a “street-view” approach to create developments that align with low-income families’ lifestyles, he noted.

To boost community housing, he also cited the need for policies that simplify loan takeouts, streamline permits for housing construction, and adopt sustainable but low-cost technologies.

The government, he added, should boost investments in affordable and climate-resilient housing, amid the floods and earthquakes that damaged houses in Cebu, Davao, and Bicol.

The Philippines faces a housing deficit of 6.5 million units, which could rise to 22 million by 2040 if not addressed, according to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.

At a forum last month, PHINMA Corp. Chairman and CEO Ramon R. del Rosario, Jr., said the company was exploring solutions to meet the “very pressing” need for affordable housing, particularly in underserved markets.

“Our society is faced with so many problems, and so many of those problems can be better addressed if the business community puts its resources together… to try and address those issues,” he said.

“We’re trying to do that in education, and we’ve made some headway there, but today we would like to explore how we can do housing for the underserved in a meaningful way, and hopefully, in a scaled-up way,” Mr. Del Rosario added.

PHINMA CoHo will conduct the groundbreaking of its first housing project in Davao this month, which is expected to house more than 500 families.

PHINMA reported a net loss of P216.45 million in the first nine months, driven by weaker results in its property, construction materials, and hospitality businesses.

At the local bourse on Monday, shares of PHINMA Corp. were down 0.12%, or two centavos, to close at P16.38 apiece. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz