Elevate: Sustaining progress through collaboration and strategic housing innovations
My warmest greetings to the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association (SHDA) on the occasion of your 34th National Developers Convention.
This year’s theme, “Elevate: Sustaining Progress through Collaboration and Strategic Housing Innovations,” challenges all of us to look beyond simply building more homes. As we elevate the housing industry, we must also elevate the standards by which homes are planned, sold, built, delivered, and maintained.
At the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), our starting point is always the Filipino family.
For most Filipinos, buying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions they will ever make. It represents years of work and savings, and often decades of commitment to paying for a property. For our overseas Filipino workers, it may represent years spent away from their families, with the hope that their sacrifices will ultimately provide their loved ones with the security of a home they can call their own.
That is why they deserve our protection. They deserve to know that the home they are purchasing is properly authorized, that what was promised to them will be delivered, that their hard-earned money is protected, and that there is a government regulator prepared to uphold their rights when those promises are not fulfilled.
This is why DHSUD takes seriously its responsibility as the country’s housing regulator. We recognize the private sector as an indispensable partner in addressing the country’s housing needs.
We want responsible developers to succeed, because a strong and credible housing industry is essential to producing the homes and communities our people need. Regulation must always serve a public purpose.
This means promoting an environment where responsible developers can operate efficiently while ensuring that safeguards for buyers are never compromised. It means demanding transparency in the sale of housing projects, compliance with development commitments, timely delivery, adherence to approved plans and standards, and accountability when obligations to buyers are not fulfilled.
It also means ensuring that innovation does not come at the expense of protection. New approaches to planning, financing, construction, and housing delivery must ultimately result in better, safer, more affordable, and more reliable homes for Filipino families.
This same principle guides our implementation of the Expanded Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino or 4PH Program. Under the leadership of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., we continue to bring together national government agencies, local government units, financial institutions, and the private sector to expand access to decent and affordable housing.
But our success cannot be measured by numbers alone. It must also be measured by the quality of the homes we deliver, the communities we create, and the confidence of Filipino families that when they invest their hard-earned money in a home, their rights and interests will be protected.
To our partners in SHDA, I therefore ask you to join us in strengthening this culture of responsibility and accountability across the housing sector.
Let us build an industry where compliance is not regarded merely as a regulatory requirement, but as a commitment to every Filipino family who places their trust in us.
DHSUD will continue working toward a regulatory environment that is responsive, efficient, and enabling for responsible development.
At the same time, we will be firm in our duty to protect homebuyers and homeowners, particularly those who are most vulnerable to unscrupulous practices.
The Filipino homebuyer must remain at the heart of housing regulation. Because ultimately, behind every permit, license, project, subdivision, and condominium unit is a Filipino family investing not only its money, but its hopes for a better future.
May this convention strengthen our shared resolve to build not only more homes, but a housing sector founded on responsibility, integrity, quality, and above all, the protection and welfare of every Filipino homebuyer.
Mabuhay ang sektor ng pabahay! Mabuhay ang Bagong Pilipinas!
The author is the Secretary of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD)
