Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) Secretary Jose Acuzar recently said that the government would provide P216 billion worth of interest subsidies for Filipinos who will be settlers of its six million housing project in the next six years.
He made the announcement at the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association’s (SHDA) 30th National Developers Convention in Taguig City.
Acuzar introduced the ‘Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Program,’ a directive from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that aims to construct 1 million housing units per year in select areas in the country to address the 6.5 million housing backlog and the two major bottlenecks of affordability and access to funds for housing. Through the housing program, banks and Government Financial Institutions (GFIs) such as the Home Development Mutual Fund (PagIbig Fund) are mandated to provide flexible financing options to low-income beneficiaries, informal settler families, and minimum wage earners alongside a preferential interest rate of only one percent on their housing loans.
“To build 1 million houses, we need P1 trillion because we need P1 million per housing unit,” said Acuzar. “But the government cannot afford that P1 trillion. To finance this, we need private money from banks as they are the ones who have that kind of money.”