PROPERTY developers are hurting from the stringent additional requirements implemented by the government after the Globe Asiatique case was unveiled.
Subdivision and Housing Development Association (SHDA) chairman Manuel C. Crisostomo told the BusinessMirror the Globe Asiatique case has contributed to the slowdown in property development after government officials, led by Vice President Jejomar Binay, hounded the property developer.
“A lot of developers have slowed down in their activities; the Globe Asiatique created a ripple effect,” Crisostomo told the BusinessMirror, adding that this may result to loss of jobs and missing of targets.
Crisostomo estimates the industry lost 30 percent of output .
Globe Asiatique allegedly took out at least P6.6 billion in housing-loan proceeds for buyers of its housing projects in Pampanga even though the units were not yet completed, or were below standard, unoccupied, or closed.
Some of the buyers were allegedly fake Pag-IBIG members or ineligible for membership while others used spurious loan accounts.
Syndicated estafa charges were filed against Delfin Lee; his son Dexter Lee, executive vice president, chief finance officer, treasurer and board member; Christina Salagan, head of Accounting/Finance Department; Christina Sagun, head of Documentation Department; and Atty. Alex Alvarez of the Pag-IBIG Legal Department and manager of the Foreclosure Department.
Last year Binay ordered Pag-IBIG to investigate reports that the property developer was able to siphon off over P6.6 billion in loans from the agency by using ghost borrowers and fake documents, and was double-selling its housing units.
“On one hand, we’re required to allot 20 percent of the total project to mass housing. But the stringent application of this requirement as well as cumbersome government processes and fees are taking away the capital we use for this allocation,” Crisostomo explained.
He said those hardest hit are small property developers who roll funds from payments to build other units.“It’s only when they get payment from take-out [of housing units] that they can start on another unit.”
Crisostomo said with additional processes due to delays in a computerization project of the Land Registration Authority, “the money supposedly for expansion are used to hire people to meet these requirements.”
He said the condition hobbles the ability of developers to help the government address the housing backlog, estimated at 3.7 million units.
