NHMFC eyes P500-M budget for informal housing loans

The National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC) is eyeing some P500 million in subsidy for next year from the National Government, as budgetary appropriation to fund its Community Mortgage Program (CMP) and meet the home financing requirements of some 10,000 informal settlers.

Angelico T. Salud, NHMFC president, said that this is part of the P2.736-billion total budget proposal for the housing agencies submitted by Housing Secretary Michael T. Defensor for 2004 that would translate to the production of some 79,729 shelter security units.

Salud also reported that while NHMFC received no subsidy allocation for CMP from the 2003 general appropriations act, the agency nonetheless received authority from the Department of Budget and Management for the realignment of some unused housing amortization support fund, which was used in lending to the associations of informal settlers this year.

Of these funds, NHMFC has released during the first nine months of the year a total of P391.2 million under CMP to 63 homeowners associations nationwide with 8,909 family-beneficiaries.