‘Undeliverable’ tugs housing loan releases

CEBU, Philippines —  Property developers’ undeliverable pushed Pag-IBIG Fund Visayas housing loan performance down by three percent in 2018.

The Visayas cluster, which is composed of Cebu and Bacolod hubs released P9.096 billion of housing loans in 2018 lower than the P9.34 billion recorded in 2017.

Pag-IBIG Fund chief executive officer (CEO) Acmad Rizaldy Moti said developers’ project undeliverable during the year pulled down the loan release performance last year, although pre-approved housing loans valued at about P2 billion.

Part of developers’ concerns why they were not able to deliver the residential units on time is due to slower releases of permits from concerned government agencies.

However, according to Moti the problem is not with Cebu but with Eastern Visayas as some of the projects by big developers there did not materialize.

He cited issues with the land titles were among the reasons faced by the developers.

“It is only a slight drop in terms of the amount,” said Moti.

Because of the slacked performance last year, Pag-IBIG Fund Visayas targets to release P11 billion of housing loans in 2019.

“We are also encouraging the Cebu-based developers to handle the slack of the target,” he said.

The agency only approves housing loans of projects that are already completed. They don’t entertain loans for projects that are still on the pre-selling stages.

In 2018, Pag-IBIG Fund Visayas delivered 8,307 housing units, down by six percent from 8,815 recorded in 2017.