Pag-IBIG Fund can afford to offer the lowest rates for home loans of minimum and low-wage workers.

Pag-IBIG Fund has financed 18,715 socialized homes of minimum-wage and low-income members from January to September 2019, its top executives said.

Socialized homes make up 29 percent of the 65,375 units financed by the agency in the last nine months. In terms of amount, socialized home loans made up P7.18 billion out of the record-high P58.73 billion home loans released by the agency for the period.

“Pag-IBIG Fund has a socialized housing program designed specifically to help minimum and low-wage workers secure their own homes at the price of renting one. We call it the Affordable Housing Program and it is aligned with President Duterte’s directive to government institutions to carry out programs that address the needs of the underserved sector,” said Secretary Eduardo del Rosario, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees.

The Affordable Housing Program is open to members earning not more than P15,000 per month within the National Capital Region (NCR) and those earning not more than P12,000 per month if outside of NCR. Under this program, Pag-IBIG Fund maintains the lowest interest rate in the market of 3 percent per annum — a subsidized rate it has provided for minimum and low-wage workers since May 2017. This rate applies to socialized home loans up to P580,000. The Fund is able to subsidize this low interest rate due to its being a tax-exempt agency as prescribed under Republic Act 9679.

“Because of our Charter, Pag-IBIG Fund can afford to offer the lowest rates for home loans of minimum and low-wage workers. Aside from keeping our interest rates low, we also reduced the insurance premiums of our home loans under our Affordable Housing Program. As a result, qualified borrowers under this program will pay an affordable monthly amortization of only P2,445.30 for a socialized home loan of up to P580,000. We set a 100 percent loan-to-value ratio for our Affordable Housing Program, which means that borrowers through the years never had to put out cash for equity. All of these are part of our efforts to provide the best home financing program for our members. That’s what Lingkod Pag-IBIG is all about,” said Pag-IBIG Fund chief executive officer Acmad Rizaldy Moti.