In Smart cities, affordable housing must be near job opportunities | Business and Politics
Dr. Nathaniel “Dinky” Von Einsiedel, an urban development and management specialist, speaks about housing and land use as vital to building smart cities. He said one of the keys to making housing affordable is deducting the value of land from the cost. He adds that smart city technology may assist in identifying locations and available lands where housing may be built. Ideally these should be in close proximity to job opportunities with efficient transportation systems.
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Dr. Nathaniel “Dinky” Von Einsiedel, an urban development and management specialist, speaks about housing and land use as vital to building smart cities. He said one of the keys to making housing affordable is deducting the value of land from the cost. He adds that smart city technology may assist in identifying locations and available lands where housing may be built. Ideally these should be in close proximity to job opportunities with efficient transportation systems.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Sir, one of the major components of having smart cities
00:04 is really addressing the quality of life
00:07 of the residents in the area, right, or urban centers.
00:11 And I suppose, and correct me if I'm wrong,
00:14 housing is an important aspect of that.
00:17 - Yes.
00:18 - Can you talk about, you know, the smart cities
00:20 and how it addresses, you know,
00:23 quality of life and affordable, quality housing?
00:26 Is there a convergence there, or are these,
00:29 what is the relationship between this?
00:31 - Well, housing is, of course, one of the major issues,
00:36 or it's actually considered one of the basic needs.
00:41 And it's a major problem in the Philippines,
00:45 as you probably know.
00:46 The housing backlog is at 6.5 million
00:49 and exponentially growing.
00:52 And the problem is that when you talk of housing,
00:58 you cannot disassociate it with land.
01:01 - Okay.
01:02 - Okay?
01:03 Because you need the land where the houses are to be built.
01:05 - Right.
01:06 - Okay?
01:07 And what makes housing unaffordable to many
01:11 is because land is included in the pricing.
01:14 - I see.
01:15 - Okay?
01:16 Now, what if you don't sell the land?
01:19 - I see.
01:20 - Like what we did in Bliss before.
01:23 - Okay.
01:24 - Bliss is long-term lease.
01:25 - Okay.
01:26 - Okay?
01:27 The land, the value of the land is not added
01:30 to the monthly payments of the residents.
01:33 - Okay.
01:34 - So it gives government the flexibility
01:38 of adjusting the monthly payments by the people
01:42 who live in the place.
01:43 - I see.
01:44 - By not inputting the value of land.
01:48 This has been done not only in Bliss,
01:50 but has been done in Valenzuela.
01:53 - Okay.
01:54 - In what is now known or referred to as
01:57 Disciplina Village.
01:58 - Okay.
01:59 - Which was initiated by now Senator Sherwin-
02:03 - I see.
02:04 - And continued on by his brother, Rex.
02:07 - Right.
02:07 - And they've expanded it, they've added more units,
02:10 et cetera.
02:10 I mean, can you imagine?
02:12 They're only charging 300 pesos a month.
02:14 - Wow.
02:15 - Per unit.
02:16 - Wow.
02:17 - Because they did not input the value of the land
02:21 to the monthly payments of the residents.
02:23 - Okay.
02:24 - And the monthly payments of the beneficiaries.
02:26 - I see.
02:27 - Now, how does Smart Cities or Smart City technology
02:31 help in this?
02:32 Okay.
02:33 Monitoring who needs housing.
02:37 Okay.
02:38 There is a, we need to do a socioeconomic survey
02:43 of who are the residents who are really in need of housing.
02:47 - I see.
02:47 - Okay, because if you don't have the kind of
02:50 systematic database, it's so easy for anybody to say,
02:55 you know, I need housing.
02:56 But, you know, you need to check it.
02:59 And before it used to be done manually.
03:02 - Okay.
03:03 - Now, it can be done using drones, for example.
03:06 You can check on blighted areas, on slum areas.
03:11 And also you can check on, you know,
03:14 if you're going to build new buildings,
03:15 you want to make sure it will not be on flood prone areas.
03:19 Or disaster prone areas.
03:21 So, the use of Smart City technology can assist a lot.
03:26 Also in identifying where are the lands that are available.
03:32 - I see.
03:32 - Where you can build housing.
03:34 Which are near to jobs.
03:36 - Right.
03:37 - So that kind of a correlation.
03:38 Because the problem with the housing program in the past,
03:43 the relocation to Cavite, to Montalban, et cetera.
03:48 I mean, these are places that are too far
03:51 from where employment and livelihood opportunities are.
03:55 That's why people don't like going to these places.
03:58 - Right.
03:59 - And that's why you had that Kadamay problem of the people.
04:04 - Right, appropriating.
04:06 - Yes.
04:06 - So, you know, the use of Smart City technology
04:11 could assist and facilitate the proper kind of an approach
04:18 to the problem.
04:19 - That's so interesting.
04:20 Because, you know, I mean,
04:21 there's a Smart City component of it.
04:23 But there's also just basic policy making.
04:27 You mentioned, you know, do you sell it, do you rent it?
04:30 I mean, that doesn't require technology.
04:33 - That's right.
04:34 - And I was wondering, you know,
04:35 you mentioned the informal settlers.
04:37 But even middle income people living
04:40 or working in the metro area.
04:42 Because I guess land is so expensive
04:46 within the metropolitan area.
04:48 They go to maybe Bulacan or Cavite, Laguna.
04:52 But, you know, this becomes expensive,
04:55 especially when you have skyways or tollways
04:59 that, you know, seem to, I don't know,
05:01 discourage you from living far away.
05:05 Because there's a transportation cost now
05:07 just to go back to...
05:09 Where do we go wrong?
05:13 I mean...
05:14 - Well, you probably have heard of the 15-minute city.
05:19 - Okay, yes.
05:21 - This is something that was initiated in Paris
05:26 by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris,
05:30 where she adopted this policy
05:32 that you can access the essential services
05:36 that each household needs within a 15-minute walk,
05:41 bicycle ride, or public transport.
05:43 Okay, it's become quite popular among architects.
05:50 And in fact, even now, some mayors talk about it.
05:54 And they want to adopt the system.
05:57 But this is not really new.
05:59 In urban planning, the idea of a neighborhood
06:05 that's complete, that provides the essential services
06:09 that a household needs, it's an old idea, okay?
06:14 And there has been a number of books
06:19 that have written about it.
06:21 And the thing is, you need to relate transport
06:26 with land use, okay?
06:29 So housing or residential development
06:32 is one of the land uses that you need to incorporate.
06:36 Now, we are building the North-South Commuter Railway, okay?
06:41 And phase one is going to open soon, okay?
06:46 Between Clark and Divisoria,
06:49 there are something like 20 stations, okay?
06:52 Now, you can imagine, if we had affordable housing
06:56 in each of these stations,
06:59 someone, a vendor in Divisoria can live in Malolos,
07:04 where it's cheaper to own a unit,
07:06 rather than some crowded, little, dingy place in Divisoria,
07:11 and be in Divisoria in 25 minutes.
07:15 So there are these opportunities that are coming up,
07:19 which we need to take advantage of.
07:23 So I understand that the DOTR has been promoting
07:28 the concept of transit-oriented development, or TOD.
07:33 - Okay.
07:34 - Which blends transport, public transport, with land use.
07:39 - I see.
07:39 - And a more efficient use of the land.
07:42 Now, the challenge is being able to put in affordable
07:46 housing within a walking distance of the station.
07:50 Because the word has already gone out
07:54 that this commuter train is going to start operating soon.
07:59 The land values have gone up.
08:00 - Okay, and speculators now buying it.
08:01 - Speculators have come in, and so the land values
08:04 have gone up.
08:05 Now, whether it is still affordable to put up housing,
08:09 it's now a big question mark.
08:11 - Right.
08:12 - So government needs to move fast if it wants to really
08:16 be able to use that opportunity to build affordable housing.
08:20 - Do you think there's still a chance for an urban area
08:25 like Metro Manila to do these things that we're talking
08:30 about, or should we start over?
08:33 I mean, you mentioned Clark.
08:35 I mean, the private sector is looking at township
08:37 developments outside, which would have that 15-minute
08:42 walking feature to it.
08:45 Is that the solution, or you still have hope
08:49 for Metro Manila?
08:50 - Well, I think it can be done.
08:52 It might be difficult in certain areas, but I think
08:56 it can be done, because a city is an ever, you know,
09:00 it's a dynamic place.
09:02 - I see.
09:03 - There are new opportunities that come up.
09:05 - Right.
09:06 - And there is such a thing as urban redevelopment.
09:11 - I see.
09:12 - Because for whatever reason, certain parts of the city
09:15 deteriorates, okay?
09:17 - Okay.
09:18 - And that's why there is such a thing.
09:21 - It's natural, yeah.
09:22 - It's natural.
09:22 - Yeah.
09:23 - And that's why there is such a thing as, you know,
09:25 like a human body, you know, you discover some part
09:30 of your body needs something, so you take some vitamins
09:34 to do something about that problem.
09:37 So similarly, in a city, when a particular district
09:41 deteriorates and the revenue, the quality of life
09:44 in that place goes down, it requires a redevelopment effort.
09:49 - I see.
09:50 - A revitalization effort.
09:51 - Does that apply also to what we started with,
09:54 housing, is that something that, is that a lost cause?
09:57 - Well, you know, when you want to generate
10:02 better business, retail in a particular place,
10:08 there is no substitute.
10:10 You need to have residential development.
10:12 - I see.
10:13 - Because that's what's going to populate,
10:15 and you'll have a 24/7 kind of a market
10:19 for whatever retail facilities you put in.
10:22 So it cannot just be totally retail.
10:24 - Right, right.
10:25 - You have to have residential development as well.
10:29 So the thing is, it requires a certain degree of,
10:34 I guess, political will is the term for it.
10:38 - Sure.
10:38 - Because, you know, it's always difficult
10:43 to introduce something new when people get used
10:46 to the way certain things are done,
10:49 and the way certain things are.
10:51 - Sure.
10:52 - And so when you want to modernize,
10:54 there is a tendency to resist that kind of a,
10:58 you know, like for example,
11:00 you want to build affordable housing,
11:03 but you don't have government-owned land.
11:06 - Okay.
11:07 - So what do you do?
11:07 But a local government may own a public market.
11:13 - I see.
11:14 - And the public market is only one floor.
11:16 What do you do with the--
11:17 - With the rest of the vertical space.
11:20 - Vertical space.
11:22 So you can actually build a multi-story building
11:25 with a public market on the ground floor,
11:27 and use the upper floors for your housing, okay?
11:31 So now, whether that's being done,
11:35 it requires a little bit of, I guess,
11:37 creativity on the part of the local leaders
11:40 to go into that kind of a thing.
11:44 Because once you start talking to the market vendors
11:49 about redeveloping the market,
11:51 immediately it becomes a sensitive topic,
11:55 because they don't want to lose the space
11:57 that they already have.
11:58 - Sure.
11:59 - But very often also,
12:01 you get into the problem of corruption.
12:04 - Right.
12:05 - Because public markets are notorious
12:07 for having tenants who are not present in the place.
12:12 - And I guess that's where digital applications will help.
12:17 - That's right.
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