PHINMA Properties joins Business Call to Action (BCtA) with commitment to greater housing access in the Philippines

October 20, 2014, Manila - PHINMA Property Holdings Corporation (PHINMA Properties), announced its commitment to extend housing opportunities to impoverished families in the Philippines as it joined Business Call to Action (BCtA), a global initiative that encourages private-sector efforts to fight poverty. As part of its commitment, the company plans to build an estimated 10,000 more socialized housing units within and around metro Manila by 2017.

Established in 1987, PHINMA Properties is a medium and high-rise housing developer geared towards the affordable market. Due to the lack of housing amid overpopulation in Philippine urban areas, the company has incorporated Inclusive Business through socialized housing development to cater the needs of Filipinos living in poverty.

According to Willie Uy, President and CEO of PHINMA Properties, Our association with the Business Call to Action reaffirm our commitment to improving inclusion and our goal of providing home opportunities to customers in the Philippines. We will continue to build a sustainable business while benefiting society and providing reasonably priced housing.

In 2012, PHINMA Properties partnered with the Quezon City government to construct the city's largest socialized housing project, BISTEKVILLE II. The project has already uplifted the lives of thousands of underprivileged beneficiaries the informal settler families (ISFs) who previously occupied privately owned land as well as waterways and other dangerous areas. This flagship socialized housing project is one of the pioneer Inclusive Business initiatives in the Philippines.

With this success, PHINMA Properties aims to construct 10,000 more in-city and provincial socialized housing units by 2017, an effort to continuously improve Filipinos quality of life through decent, affordable housing. PHINMA Properties also facilitates livelihood training and workshops to ensure the economic well-being of beneficiary families.

By working to create housing options in communities through greater access to affordable homes, companies like PHINMA Properties will not only contribute to inclusive development but will improve quality of life in the Philippines, stated Sahba Sobhani, Acting Programme Manager of Business Call to Action.

About PHINMA Properties:

Established in 1987, PHINMA Property Holdings Corporation (PHINMA Properties) is a medium and high-rise housing developer that caters to the affordable market. PHINMA Properties is the first triple-ISO certified developer in the Philippines, with certifications awarded for Quality, Environment and Safety. A subsidiary of the leading Philippine conglomerate, PHINMA Inc., PHINMA Properties is deeply committed to its core business of building affordable homes and creating peaceful, safe communities. Through dedicated corporate social responsibility and nation-building business initiatives, PHINMA Properties believes that the private sector can be an important contributor to the Philippines development.

The PHINMA group of companies seeks to provide Filipinos with access to a better quality of life by investing in multiple services including affordable quality education, clean reliable energy, value-for-money urban housing, and secure, reasonably priced lodging.

About the Business Call to Action (BCtA)
Business Call to Action is a global initiative that challenges companies to develop inclusive business models that offer the potential for development impact along with commercial success. The initiative is the result of a partnership between the Australian Agency for International Development, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, UK Department for International Development, US Agency for International Development, United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Global Compact, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the International Business Leaders Forum to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Companies report on progress toward commitments on an annual basis. http://www.businesscalltoaction.org/

For more information:

Contact: Karen.Newman@undp.org, 212 906-5194