He said that the one-stop shop doesn't always respond as it should.
SANTO DOMINGO. – Regarding complaints from some business owners in the eastern part of the city about delays in obtaining building permits from government agencies involved in the process, Fermín Acosta, former president of the Dominican Association of Housing Builders and Developers (Acoprovi), suggested that the Ministry of Housing, Habitat and Buildings (Mivhed) implement urban brokerages to expedite these procedures.
“We want to take this opportunity to suggest to the Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Housing (MIVHED) that it put into operation the urban brokerages that are managed by the private sector, but enforcing the Ministry's regulations, and that would allow for faster project approvals,” the businessman stated when consulted by El Inmobiliario.
Acosta said that with this implementation, it also eliminates the need to look for intermediary companies to process projects for developers, which, he said, increases costs for construction companies.
He argued that “there are certainly some delays in the approval of projects, which are not necessarily the responsibility of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MIVHED), because there are other entities involved in project approvals and the one-stop shop does not always respond as it should.”.
At this point, he agrees with Teodoro Tejada, former president of the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects, and Surveyors (CODIA), who told El Inmobiliario last week that the one-stop shop is a myth in the country. “They’ve been negligent in issuing building permits here, and this whole one-stop shop thing is a myth; it’s never existed in this country,” Tejada emphasized.
For his part, Acosta cited the municipalities, the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Tourism as among the institutions involved in issuing permits.
Fermín Acosta. (External source).
“One issue that developers in the East face is that they almost always have to look for an intermediary company to manage the approval of projects,” Fermín Acosta pointed out.
He stressed that this represents "an anomaly in itself because project approvals should be directly between the interested party and the approving institution, and everything should work through a single window.".
The complaints
Daniel Cordero and Arnold Cordero, executives of Desarrolladora Morada, with several projects in Punta Cana, expressed that the construction sector in the eastern part of the Dominican Republic faces a growing challenge such as the constant delay in the issuance of permits for real estate projects.
They stated that the situation has generated concern among construction companies, who claim that the progress of their works has been affected by the slowness of the authorities.
They stated that the situation hinders the progress of the area and could damage its reputation due to the constant delays in project deliveries.
“If we don’t have a shared responsibility among the authorities regarding permits, it’s impossible for us to develop this area. This area has lost prestige, for example, due to the many late deliveries by numerous developers,” he stated.
Daniel Cordero asserted that this scenario is largely due to delays in the issuance of permits by various state institutions.
Former President Codia
Similarly, former Codia president Teodoro Tejada stated that the situation in the East is regrettable, and that all permits for that area are processed through the Dominican capital, further exacerbating the problem. "This is a setback because the same situation from 20 years ago persists," he said, adding that local offices simply collect cases and refer them to the National District.
He said that those who hinder construction permits have a strong impact on the Dominican economy, because when construction is paralyzed in that same order, dynamism stops, since it is the main catalyst for jobs in the country.
He added that several sectors are indirectly affected, such as the construction industry, the hardware store, the woman who sells food in the towns, and all the actors involved in the process.
