Pag-IBIG financed P10.64-B home loans for low-income earners in 2019

Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) reported Friday that it had financed more than 27,000 socialized home loans in 2019 amounting to P10.64 billion.

In a statement, Pag-IBIG Fund said it provided 27,145 socialized home loans for minimum-wage and low-income members last year.

The number of socialized home loans accounted for 28 percent of the total 95,276 home loans released by the agency in 2019.

The P10.64-billion worth of socialized home loans comprised 12 percent of the record-high P86.74 billion home loans released by Pag-IBIG.

“The Affordable Housing Loan Program, which is Pag-IBIG Fund’s socialized housing loan program, is designed specifically to help minimum and low-wage workers buy or build a home of their own. This is our way of adhering to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s call for government institutions to carry out programs that address the needs of the underserved sector,” Housing Secretary Eduardo del Rosario, chairperson of the 11-member Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees and Secretary of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), said.

The Affordable Housing Program (AHP) was for members who earned up to P15,000 a month within the National Capital Region (NCR) and members who earned up to P12,000 per month outside the NCR.

Under the AHP, Pag-IBIG Fund offered a subsidized rate of three percent per annum for socialized home loans up to P580,000.

Pag-IBIG Fund Chief Executive Officer Acmad Rizaldy Moti said that the three percent rate was the lowest in the market which the agency was able to offer due to its tax-exempt status, as prescribed under Republic Act No. 9679 or the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) Law of 2009.

“Because of our Charter, Pag-IBIG Fund can afford to offer the lowest rates for the home loans of minimum and low-wage workers. We first offered the 3% rate in May 2017 and until now, that rate still stands, as we seek to help more members realize their dreams of owning a home. Aside from keeping our interest rates low, we also reduced the insurance premiums, which keeps the monthly amortization at an affordable P2,445.30 for a socialized home loan of up to P580,000,” Moti said.

“And what’s more, qualified borrowers will never have to put out cash for equity under our Affordable Housing Program. All of these are part of our efforts to provide the best home financing program for our members who earn minimum wage,” he said. — Ted Cordero/DVM, GMA News