As it beefs up preparations for its 27th national convention at the Thunderbird Resort slated in La Union from October 17-20 this year, the country’s largest organization of real estate and housing industry players is once again urging the passage of a bill that will create a Comprehensive Home Financing Program (CHFP) to make all income-earning Filipinos entitled to low-interest, long-term housing loans, even if they are not members of the Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), or the Pag-lBIG Fund.

Charlie A. V. Gorayeb, national chairman of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Associations, Inc. (CREBA), said the CHFP is designed exclusively for home loan borrowers with no component for development financing.

This is to ensure the use of funds strictly for shelter acquisition by the homeless, estimated by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) to be at least 6.57 million families nationwide as of 2017.

As proposed by CREBA, the resulting surge in housing beneficiaries would be covered by an initial P350-billion fund sourced in the form of investment in bonds by the SSS at P5 billion; GSIS at P25 billion; a minimum of P70 billion up to a maximum of 70 percent of Pag-IBIG Fund’s total investible funds for housing; P200 billion from the unused or residual agri-agra funds of banks; plus another P50 billion from government’s annual budget, all with mandatory guaranty cover from the Home Guaranty Corporation.

If passed into law, the proposed bill thus amends Republic Act 7835 or the Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter Finance Act (CISFA) of 1994.

These fund sources, according to CREBA national president Noel Toti M. Cariño, have already been identified by various existing laws and need only to be integrated for effective administration to socialized and economic housing beneficiaries.

Payable in at least 30 or more years, CHFP loans for residential units in subdivisions or medium-rise condominium buildings shall be P1.5 million and below at three percent fixed interest rate for socialized housing, and above P1.5 million up to P3,199,200 at four percent for economic housing.

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