Noting the upbeat housing developments in the city, Pag-Ibig Fund president and chief executive officer Romero Federico S. Quimbo deemed Cebu as an ultimate boom town.
Quimbo was in Cebu recently to grace the induction of new officers of the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association Incorporated which has around 16 founding members composed of small scale and big time housing developers and builders from Central and Eastern Visayas.
Quimbo was in Cebu recently to grace the induction of new officers of the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association Incorporated which has around 16 founding members composed of small scale and big time housing developers and builders from Central and Eastern Visayas.
Quimbo said that undeniably Cebu can be considered as one of the country’s booming metropolis with developments from housing, real estate, to commercial establishments within the area to prove it. He said that most housing developments in the province have been financially supported by the Home Development Mutual Fund.
He added that in terms of quality, these houses are not cheap but comfortable type of economic housing which homeowners could stay for a long while.
He added that in terms of quality, these houses are not cheap but comfortable type of economic housing which homeowners could stay for a long while.
Quimbo said it has been the recent administration’s vision to make housing loans more accessible to a huge portion of the populace by decreasing the interest rates and amortization for the past few years.
As Quimbo pointed out, “we want to bring back housing in the forefront. About ten years ago, borrowing from government was more like an impossible dream, but today it has become cheaper to amortize than to rent monthly in many areas. We look at housing as an investment so if you don’t have a home, now is the best opportune time to invest in a house because interest rates are at its historical low,” he advised Pag-Ibig members.
The lowered interest rates in Pag-Ibig’s housing loans resulted to a boom in the housing industry as now more members can now afford to buy their own homes.
In Central Visayas alone, Pag-Ibig loans out an average of P200 million monthly which estimates to around 200 units. In the region, Cebu city contributes the biggest or the bulk of loan outs averaging to around 100 units a month.
For the last five years, Pag-Ibig’s portfolio contained that around 40 percent or about P111.6 billion of the country’s mortgage market is being financed by Pag-Ibig while 37 percent comes from banking institutions combined whereas the rest of the 24 percent are loaned out by other government-owned corporations.
As of March this year, around P7.03 billion has been disposed to members, which reflects an 84 percent increase compared to last year. Despite the increase in borrowings of members, Pag-Ibig have not increased premium rates for its members, Quimbo stressed.
He however explained that they are looking at changing their charter to gain tax exemption considering that they are a provident fund. The charter change said Quimbo will also aim to empower their board of trustees in fixing contribution rates and allow them to reorganize the institution.
However he said if Congress would allow the charter change, changes in the contribution rates will still take place at around the year 2011 to 2012.
“We are the country’s biggest home lender by a wide margin and so, the main objective for the charter change is for Pag-Ibig Fund to become at par and of equal footing with other GFIs,” he said.
Article source: The Freeman
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