TARLAC CITY, Tarlac — The government is bringing its flagship housing program to Tarlac, setting the stage for the construction of over 7,000 affordable homes aimed at low-income families.
The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) announced that the 49-hectare Kaia Homes project in Barangay Armenia, Tarlac City, has been enlisted under the Expanded Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program.
Classified as a subdivision-type development, the project will benefit from the Pag-IBIG Fund’s subsidized interest rates, effectively lowering the monthly amortization financial burden for qualified homebuyers.
The housing units will feature the two-story “Naya” model, which offers 32 square meters of floor space. Inner units will occupy 30-square-meter lots, while corner units will stand on 41-square-meter properties.
Each home is designed to include two bedrooms, one toilet and bath, a living area, and dedicated parking for motorcycles or e-bikes. The development will also feature community amenities, including a playground, a covered multipurpose court, and shared open spaces.
Housing Secretary Jose Ramon Aliling stated that the department is continuously working alongside private developers to speed up the delivery of these affordable units. He emphasized that regular inspections are being conducted to ensure that the socialized housing project strictly meets national quality standards.
The expansion into Tarlac comes as the country grapples with a massive housing deficit.
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme previously placed the Philippine housing backlog at 6.5 million units, a crisis directly affecting 3.7 million informal settler families. Without massive state intervention, the UN agency projected the shortfall could snowball to 22 million units by 2040.
Faced with the realities of the housing shortage, DHSUD recently downscaled its targets for the Marcos administration to 1.133 million housing interventions.
This revised figure, which encompasses both directly constructed units and indirect forms of housing assistance, is a steep drop from the administration’s original debut target of 6.5 million units by 2028, which was later halved to 3.2 million before being reduced to its current level.
To date, the current administration has completed around 400,000 socialized housing units nationwide.
