Pag-IBIG home-loan releases reach P58.7B from Jan to Sept
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2019 16:24:43 +0000
HOME loans released by the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG fund) reached P58.73 billion in the first three quarters of 2019, which the agency said was the highest amount it has released for any January-to-September period.
In a statement on Wednesday, Pag-IBIG said the amount was a 13-percent (P6.97 billion) increase from the P51.76 billion in home loans released in the same period last year. The number of financed homes, it added, also grew by 4 percent year-on-year to 65,375.
“We [are] yet to finish the year, but things are already looking good as we have again set a new record high on our home-loan releases for January to September,” said Secretary Eduardo D. del Rosario, chairman of both the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and the Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees.
“We will continue to work hard in the remaining months of 2019 to provide decent and affordable home financing to even more Filipino workers. This is our commitment, being one of the key players in President Rodrigo Duterte’s drive to uplift the lives of Filipino families,” he added.
Of the total amount, del Rosario said, P7.18 billion were released as socialized home loans for 18,715 Pag-IBIG members belonging to the minimum-wage and low-income sectors.
For his part, Pag-IBIG Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti called the growth of the agency’s housing operations “remarkable.”
“Before, our home-loan releases for the whole year usually ranged from P30 billion to P45 billion. It was only in 2016 that we breached [the] P55-billion [mark] as we released P57.31 billion. We challenged ourselves to do better, which resulted [in] us surpassing P65 billion in 2017 and P75 billion in 2018,” Moti said.
“With our home-loan releases amounting to P58.73 billion in the last nine months, we have already surpassed the amount released for the whole year in the previous years until 2016. And by the end of the year, our home loan releases may reach P83 to P85 billion,” he added.
According to the Pag-IBIG CEO, the continued demand for the agency’s home loans can be attributed to its lowest-ever interest rates, high loan-to-appraisal ratio, long repayment period, and much improved insurance terms.
In total, Pag-IBIG Fund approved P80.87 billion in home loans from January to September to finance the acquisition of 84,904 homes. This includes the amount released and P22.14 billion pending for takeout to 19,529 borrowers. These pending for takeout are approved home loan applications, the proceeds of which are ready for release upon submission by borrowers of post-approval requirements.