NEWS & UPDATES

August 2008

UP SURP holds forum on sustainable housing 

August 29, 2008---The University of the Philippines School of Urban and Regional Planning (UP SURP) hosted a forum where Dr. Darin C. Gunesekera, a Sri Lankan social entrepreneur, delivered a Special Lecture entitled “Bringing the Capital Market Home to the People” in Diliman, Quezon City.

Dr. Gunesekera originated a concept for sustainable slum and shanty dweller re-housing using the capital market in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This concept is now known as the S-REIT or the Social Real Estate Investment Trust and is being discussed in Kenya and the UN HABITAT for consideration. The concept is already being used as a model for sustainable housing in India and Thailand.    

The special lecture covered the key features of and lessons from the Gunesekera-led concept of a stock exchange market which allows the poorest dwellers to value or trade land through the creation of an asset in their land that can then be transferred to a trust. The forum also discussed how the dwellers receive entitlement certificates and revenue shares that they can use to purchase an apartment in a new building. The lecture highlighted how this socialized housing model situates the people in the property and financial ladder and makes them stakeholders in urban regeneration and social transformation.   

The guest lecturer has been a long term adviser for international and multilateral organizations such as The World Bank (WB), the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID), the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the United Nations (UN). Dr. Gunesekera studied in Sri Lanka, Canada, and Yale University in the USA, where he obtained his economics degrees. He has also been delivering lectures on the subjects of stock exchange and planning.

Practitioners and students of urban and regional planning as well as representatives from government agencies and non-government organizations attended the lecture and participated in discussing new trends and strategies in addressing the housing problems in the Philippines.

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