Pag-Ibig Fund offers lowest interest rate to minimum wage earners

Pag-ibig Fund announced that it is offering its lowest housing interest rate of three percent to its members who are minimum wage earners.

“We are happy to announce that the PagIbig Fund Board of Trustees approved the lowering of interest rate under Pag-Ibig’s affordable housing for minimum wage earners to just 3 percent. This would allow more op- portunities for low income workers to realize their dream of home ownership,” said Cabinet Secretary and Pag-Ibig Chairman Leoncio B. Evasco Jr.

The new rate is 33 percent lower than the previous 4.5 percent interest rate under the Fund’s Affordable Housing Program (AHP).

Minimum wage workers in the National Capital Region not earning more than P15,000 gross monthly income, and workers in other regions with a gross monthly income of P12,000 are eligible to avail themselves of the new interest rate for a loan not exceeding P450,000.

Pag-Ibig Fund Officer-in-Charge Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti said that the move to reduce further the housing loan interest rate under the program is in response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to give the underserved sector equal access to housing opportunities.

Moti explained that Pag-Ibig Fund was able to subsidize the interest rate of minimum wage earners mainly because of the savings the Fund earns from its tax exemptions status as provided for in its charter.

He also cited the reforms the Fund implemented in recent years as contributing factors in the lowering of the interest rate.

“The reforms we have implemented particularly the outsourcing of collections has, for the first time, resulted in a single digit 9.45 percent non-performing loans (NPL) ratio of the Fund. This means that Pag-Ibig’s performing loans ratio (PLR) greatly improved, reaching 90.55 percent as of March this year, from just 75 percent a few years ago,” Moti said.

Pag-Ibig has achieved unprecedented accomplishments recently, according to Moti, which reinforced the Fund’s standing as the top home financing institution in the country today.

“Pag-Ibig’s achievements redound to the advantage of Pag-Ibig members. A stronger Pag-Ibig Fund means more benefits for PagIbig members, including the low interest rate for housing loans,” said Moti.