HUDCC sees housing loans at P600M

Informal settlers nationwide have availed of a total of P529.4 million in six percent interest bearing loans during the first 10 months of the year under the government’s Community Mortgage Program (CMP) to realize their ownership of the lands they are occupying and for housing site development.

Housing Secretary Michael T. Defensor, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) cited in a report that loan releases for the year could easily reach or even exceed the landmark level of P600 million.

"The total loan releases for the year ending Oct. 31 already comprise the highest annual loan level during the 15-year implementation of the urban poor home financing program," he informed.

The 10-month loan performance, posted by the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC), an agency under HUDCC supervision, has assisted some 12,247 urban poor families in acquiring a corresponding total of 87 CMP housing sites, according to Defensor.

"This brings to an aggregate total of P4.317 billion the CMP loans granted since 1989, which financed 1,104-housing sites for 138,871 family beneficiaries," Defensor said.

On the other hand, CMP loan take-outs amounted to P1.342 billion during the first 10 months of the year.

This represents 31.07 percent of total program releases comprising the single-biggest fund releases for urban poor housing than in any previous administration, Salud pointed out.

During this period, a total of 33,660 urban poor families were granted housing loans, equivalent to 24.24 percent of the cumulative beneficiaries of 138,871 since the program started.

For this period, President Arroyo’s administration has authorized the disbursement of P900 million in funds for CMP housing loans, of which amount P529.4 million has been released as of last month with the balance of P370.6 million already committed to fund the acquisition of urban poor-tenanted lands, Salud cited.

Recently, the House of Representatives has approved P500 million in budget for CMP loans for 2004, he added.