DHSUD to miss 2023 housing target, builds only 13,000 units under 4PH program

The Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development (DHSUD) will not reach its target of constructing 1 million housing units under its Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Housing (4PH) Program, making only nearly 13,000 by year-end, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

DHSUD’s 4PH, a flagship program of the Marcos administration, aims to build one million housing units each year until the end of the President’s term in 2028 to address the 6.5-million housing backlog.

At the plenary deliberations of the DHSUD's proposed P6.4-billion budget for 2025, Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, the budget sponsor, reported that the department is projected to complete 232,079 housing units by 2024.

"The target for housing units, [under the 4PH] is 198,111 units. However, only 12,731 housing units will be finished by the end of the year," Tiangco said.

In August, DHSUD Secretary Jerry Acuzar said that they would slash their initial target of building 6 million low-cost housing units to nearly half or 3.2 million owing to slower population growth.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), on the other hand, attributed it to a lack of funding, saying the amount needed for housing subsidies would "impact other sectors."

The government finds it difficult to accomplish building one million housing units annually due to construction delays and a lack of a budget, Mr. Tiangco noted, resulting in the agency recalibrating its housing target.

According to Tiangco, the government will need to shell out roughly P4.07 trillion to in able to address the housing backlog, with funding coming from a sovereign guarantee.

A sovereign guarantee is the assurance of a government to financing institutions or investors that the obligation to them will be fulfilled without fail.

Last month, Marcos approved a sovereign guarantee for the 4PH in a bid to expedite the construction of housing projects, particularly residential units.

Acuzar earlier said this would be over at least P1.65 trillion needed to complete the 1.2 million housing units that are already in the pipeline. 

OFW Partylist Rep. Marissa Magsino said the government should grant developers "better incentives so that the construction of our national housing will be more encouraging for them."