Pag-IBIG mortgage disbursements down 38% in first 9 months

The Home Development Mutual Fund, which operates under the trade name Pag-IBIG Fund, said home loan disbursements declined 38% to P36.43 billion the nine months to September, with the housing market hindered by the lockdown.

In a briefing Friday, the fund reported that its mortgages in the nine months funded 35,938 housing units, well below the targeted 100,000 units and mortgage volume of P100-billion.

“The restrictions themselves imposed to contain (the coronavirus) had a huge impact on our operations. For our partner developers, you know how difficult it was to conduct borrower validations and credit investigations,” Pag-IBIG said.

Loan releases peaked at P6.1 billion in February before hitting a low of P0.88 billion in April, at the height of the lockdown. In September, loan releases rebounded to P6.53 billion from P4.21 billion in August.

Pag-IBIG’s net profit was P21.65 billion in the nine months to September. In 2019, its profit was P34.37 billion, the highest in seven years.

This article was originally published by Business World.