In the Philippines, a bureaucratic slowdown at the Department of Human Settlements has reduced housing permit issuances to a fraction of last year's pace — 93 approvals so far in 2026 against 800 to 900 in the same period of 2025. Without a License to Sell, developers cannot bring a single unit to market, and so an entire pipeline of residential construction sits frozen at the threshold of legality. What begins as a paperwork delay ripples outward into lost jobs, weakened investor confidence, and a housing shortage that grows more acute precisely when the nation most needs new supply. The mach