Home loans rise to highest ever

State-run Pag-IBIG Fund indicated loan releases reached P20.94 billion in the first three months of the year, representing a 33 percent expansion despite the health crisis.

Housing Secretary Eduardo del Rosario said that the latest loan release allowed 20,712 Pag-IBIG members to acquire new homes, 5,074 of which belonged to the minimum-wage and low-income sector.

Acquisition of real estate properties continue to climb despite the pandemic and such will be true for areas outside the National Capital Region (AONCR).

Pag-IBIG CEO Acmad Rizaldy Moti expressed optimism that the numbers will continue to rise, following the gradual reopening of the economy.

“In fact, home loan releases in the first quarter of 2021 is 22 percent higher compared to our loan releases in the first quarter of 2019, which eventually turned out as our best year ever when annual home loan releases amounted to P86.7 billion,” Moti said.

“We anticipate that our momentum will continue in the succeeding quarters, barring any major catastrophic event, so we help more members become homeowners,” he added.

Carlo Asuncion, chief economist at the Union Bank of the Philippines said that housing preference might continue to lean outside Metro Manila as its Covid-19 cases remain high.