437 families benefit from Pag-IBIG’s housing fairs

MANILA, Philippines -  Vice President Jejomar Binay announced yesterday that 437 members of the Home Development Mutual (Pag-IBIG) Fund have acquired homes for their families through the housing fairs it has conducted.

Binay, chairman of the Pag-ibig Fund, said the home buyers were mostly minimum-wage earners who availed themselves of the affordable payment schemes for acquired properties offered by the Fund.

“The housing fairs are an excellent way for our countrymen to be able to avail of their dream homes in ways that they can afford,” Binay said.

Binay said housing units were offered for as low as P100,000 with an annual interest rate of as low as 4 percent. Discounts ranging from 25 to 30 percent were also given to buyers depending on their chosen mode of payment.

The housing fairs aim to dispose Pag-IBIG acquired assets to interested home buyers, particularly those whose places of work are within the vicinity of Pag-IBIG’s acquired properties located in the National Capital Region.

Qualified occupants of the Pag-IBIG acquired assets were also given priority to purchase the property they occupy.

Binay also urged Pag-IBIG members to avail themselves of all the benefits that the Fund offers.

He said Pag-IBIG Fund earned P86.72 Million from the 353 units it sold during the 12 Housing Fairs conducted from March to October this year.

The Fund also participated last October in the annual Housing Fair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), successfully selling 84 accounts worth P22.86 million.

 Pag-IBIG earned a total of P109.58 million from the properties it sold during the Fairs.

“Besides helping achieve our goal to provide homes to Filipinos, the housing fairs as well as other activites also provide means to minimize operational costs, which we can direct towards our other objectives,” Binay said.

“Pursuant to the directive of Pag-IBIG Board of Trustees chairman vice president Jejomar  Binay to make our housing programs more accessible to more members, we have been implementing innovative programs to effectively dispose of our acquired assets, and the series of Housing Fairs we conducted have yielded positive results,” said Atty. Darlene Marie Berberabe, president and CEO of Pag-IBIG Fund.

“We were able to save about P14 million from this mode of disposition since we no longer have to pay for broker’s commission, and the cost of maintenance for our acquired assets was reduced,” Berberabe added.