BGC ordinance responds to complaints about limited space for gift items

TAGUIG – The Taguig City government announced Wednesday that it will begin requiring all new residential condominium developments within Bonifacio Global City to include a dedicated pasalubong storage room, a requirement officials say responds to growing complaints about limited space for the large volume of gift items many Filipino families accumulate around travel and holiday seasons.

The requirement explained

City planning officer Estela Manalo said the ordinance requires new residential towers exceeding a certain unit count to set aside a shared, climate controlled storage room specifically designated for pasalubong and other gift items, sized proportionally to the building’s total number of units.

Manalo said the requirement emerged after a city commissioned housing survey found that limited storage space ranked among the most common complaints from condominium residents, with many respondents specifically citing the seasonal accumulation of gift items as a particular source of clutter in already compact living spaces.

Developer response

Several major property developers active in Bonifacio Global City expressed general support for the requirement, though at least one developer association representative raised concerns about the added construction cost being passed on to future unit buyers through higher purchase prices.

Manalo acknowledged the cost concern but said the city’s analysis suggested the added expense would be modest relative to overall project budgets, particularly compared to other existing amenity requirements already standard in the district’s luxury and mid-range residential developments.

Resident reaction

Current residents of existing buildings not subject to the new requirement expressed some frustration that the ordinance would not apply retroactively, with several saying they would have welcomed similar storage space in their own units rather than relying on informal solutions like stacking boxes in hallway storage lockers.

Manalo said the city considered but ultimately rejected a retroactive requirement, concluding that retrofitting existing buildings would present far greater structural and cost challenges than building the requirement into new construction from the outset.

What happens next

The ordinance takes effect for all new residential building permit applications submitted after the start of next quarter, with existing approved projects grandfathered under the previous storage requirements.

Further background on Taguig City housing policy is available through the Taguig City Government and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.

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Sizing the storage rooms

Manalo said the required storage room size scales with total unit count according to a formula the city planning office developed based on survey data estimating average pasalubong volume per household during peak gift giving seasons, with larger buildings required to provide proportionally larger shared storage space.

The formula was reviewed by an outside architectural consultant before finalization, ensuring the space requirements remained realistic relative to typical floor plate constraints in the district’s increasingly compact luxury tower designs.

Climate control specifications

The ordinance requires the storage rooms maintain consistent temperature and humidity levels suitable for preserving typical gift items, a specification Manalo said was added after consultation with residents who noted that improperly stored food based pasalubong items had previously spoiled in makeshift storage solutions lacking any climate control.

Developers said meeting this requirement would add modestly to a building’s overall mechanical system costs, though most indicated the addition was manageable within typical luxury development budgets already common in the district.

Resident advocacy groups weigh in

A local residents association representing several BGC condominium buildings issued a statement welcoming the ordinance, while also urging the city to consider incentives encouraging existing older buildings to voluntarily retrofit similar storage space where structurally feasible.

How the requirement compares to other cities

Property consultants noted that while dedicated storage rooms are not unheard of in luxury developments elsewhere in Metro Manila, Taguig’s ordinance appears to be the first instance of a local government formally mandating the amenity as a standard requirement rather than leaving it purely to individual developer discretion.

Manalo said she expects other cities to watch the ordinance’s implementation closely, particularly given how common the underlying storage complaint appears to be across similarly dense residential developments throughout Metro Manila.

The city planning office says it will monitor early compliance among newly filed building permits and share updated implementation data with the council later this year.

A note on smaller developments

The ordinance’s unit count threshold means some smaller boutique developments in the district will fall outside the mandatory requirement, though Manalo said the city hopes many will choose to include similar storage space voluntarily given the clear resident demand the survey data revealed.

Officials say they remain optimistic developers will embrace the requirement smoothly as new applications begin arriving.

A final compliance summary is expected once the first wave of new applications is processed.

The city thanked developers for their early engagement with the new requirement.

Further updates will follow as new applications move through the permitting process.

A final note

The city says lessons learned from this ordinance will directly inform how future residential amenity requirements are drafted and reviewed across the district going forward.

Further coverage will follow as the ordinance takes full effect this year.

More details to come as applications are reviewed.

Prospective buyers can review specific building compliance details directly with individual developers.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/