Page 325 - 2019 6th AFIS & ASMMA

Let me just give you some examples of housing policies of the » Moderator | Henny Sender
Philippines. We have colleagues from the Philippines here; I'm sure they Thank you. Simon, before I go to you, I'm just going to ask you one or
know much more about these policies than I do. But one important two follow-up questions, because I thought your presentation was very
policy in Manila was to resettle the informal settlers that live downtown interesting. I see your slides are very stark in the massive increase in lack
Manila to new areas outside of Manila. It sounds like a very good of affordability. Why is that? How do you explain that striking increase in
initiative, but did not turn out to be very successful. Just to give you a housing prices, which has made affordability such an issue?
little bit of an overview of Manila; the center is here right at the bay, and
here, there is a huge lake bordering Manila. So, most of the informal
settlements are actually very much downtown, close to the port. Now » Panelist | Matthias C. Helble
they decide to resettle people here towards the South. It takes by car One good thing about Asia is massive economic growth. This led to
about three hours to reach Calauan, so you can imagine that this poses a increase for the demand for housing. Owning a house is still seen as a Session II
huge issue in terms of livelihood. Where can these people work? You give very important investment in Asia. So, all of you want to be homeowners,
them nice houses and so the consequence was that some people move which results in a huge increase in demand, while the supply response
there, sold the house or rented the house, then moved back to the slums was actually very slow. So this led to a high increase in housing prices. I
of Manila. think that is the main reason.

Another initiative was to promote low cost housing. Again the main
issue was that the location is even farther than this resettlement of » Moderator | Henny Sender
informal dwellers; it's about a four-hour drive for Manila. So, you really So, it's not a question of income not growing adequately so much as a
cut off a lot of people that could be interested in buying these houses, if supply-side constraint.
they were closer to the city center.

What has worked better is a so-called community mortgage program, » Panelist | Matthias C. Helble
where basically these informal settlers, they together form a so-called I would say it's more a supply-side constraint. Because people are able
community association. This community association borrow a kind of a to afford more clothing, food, travel, etc., but the housing didn't respond
small amount; it's only a hundred thousand pesos, which translates into in terms of supply side.
twenty thousand dollars. And they use this money to upgrade houses,
they also combine it with savings and build houses as well. So, we have
seen a couple of places within Manila, where they were able to basically » Moderator | Henny Sender
really improve their situation. I'm running out of time, have only five Are those constraints and supply artificial? How do you explain the
seconds left, so thank you very much for your attention and please check lack of adequate increase in supply?
this report, which will come out at the end of September. Thank you
very much.
» Panelist | Matthias C. Helble
There are several factors. What we have often found is that the cities
have grown out of their administrative boundaries. So, sometimes

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