Wednesday, March 25, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
By Maricel E. Burgonio, Reporter
STATE-RUN Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund) is setting aside a bigger amount for its loan program this year to cater to the strong demand for low cost housing.
Jaime Fabiana, Pag-Ibig Fund chief executive officer, said the state-run firm has allocated P84.5 billion for this year from P71 billion last year.
Of the total amount earmarked for this year, Pag-Ibig Fund allocated P43 billion for housing loans, P7.5 billion for developers’ financing and P34 billion for members’ multipurpose loans.
Fabiana said the demand for loans has been increasing both from middle-income earners and real-estate developers despite the global financial crisis.
“I don’t think that it’s [global financial crisis] a big issue. More of the real-estate developers are shifting to low-cost housing,” he told reporters.
Pag-Ibig Fund has two million members who are mostly middle-income workers. Of the total membership, overseas Filipino workers account for only 300,000.
Fabiana said the fund is reviewing its policies on interest rates and loanable amounts, with a view to cutting the former and raising the latter.
At present, Pag-Ibig Fund is offering housing loans of P400,000 to P750,000 with interest rates of 6 percent to 7 percent.
Fabiana added that Pag-Ibig Fund posted P9 billion in earnings last year, higher than the P7.5 billion in 2007.
He said the fund is reviewing its profit forecast for this year but indicated the firm is likely to match last year’s earnings.
“More or less, we can see the same [profit] but we’re still reviewing [our forecast] for this year. If our charges will go down, so the yield will go down also,” he added.
