Gov’t firm selling bonds worth P2.5-B

The Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC), wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC), looks to sell P2.5 billion worth of community mortgage paper or CMP early next year.

The CMP is the other half of the larger residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) program of the NHMFC that caters to the low or social housing needs of Filipinos.

This was bared by lawyer Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling in an episode of the Daily Tribune’s Straight Talk forum aired live on Facebook where he said the bond sale should hit the market within the first quarter next year.

“The SHFC is the smallest of the government’s shelter agencies, with a small budget, and that is why we are securitizing our portfolio,” he said of the agency’s P20 billion mortgage portfolio, more or less.

The planned sale requires bundling the agency’s mortgage portfolio and sell them to the various property developers who then purchase the securities as compliance to the mandatory 15 percent housing balance requirement or HBR.

This relates to the rule requiring property developers to set aside 15 percent of total project cost or project area to benefit socialized housing recipients whose units cost no more than P450,000.

But compliance among the developers is easier said than done and this was why the SHFC got their creative juices working, Cabling said.

While property developers would not generate a return on their HBR investments, the sector comes into compliance with the terms of Republic Act 10884, particularly Section 18 of the Balanced Housing Development Program Amendments, Cabling the lawyer explained.

“The property developers would not earn any money but they would be in compliance with the law that has made their business activities a bit more complex than usual,” he reiterated.

Proceeds from the planned bond sale should also add financial heft to the agency’s P4 billion annual collection that its executives flip over to fund even more socialized housing programs down the line.

Thus far, the SHFC has built 2,723 communities around the country that benefited 311,914 informal settler families (ISF) costing P14.81 billion in loans.

The SHFC reported a collection efficiency rating of 74.31 percent over a five-year period.