[ Manila Bulletin Online ] May 15, 2008
The Pag-IBIG Fund, the biggest single housing loan provider in the country, recorded a 98 percent increase or P4.59 billion in end-user home financing for the first two months of the year over the P2.32 billion recorded for the same period last year. This amount helped finance the construction of nearly 9,000 housing units.
Meanwhile, institutional funding or loans released to the Fund’s developer-partners likewise grew by 49 percent to reach P304.9 million which made possible the development of more than 20 housing projects.
Atty. Romero F.S. Quimbo, Pag-IBIG Chief Executive Officer, said, "we hit the ground running in 2008, having already surpassed our target by seven percent for the first two months of the year."
Quimbo attributes the continued positive growth in housing to the implementation of the ‘Abot-Kamay Pabahay’ Program initiated by Vice President and concurrent Pag-IBIG Board Chairman Noli ‘Kabayan’ de Castro.
The Program, deemed as the most affordable in the market today, reduced interest rates to six percent and extended amortization payments up to 30 years.
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