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The Pag-IBIG Fund stands for Pagtutulungan sa Kinabukasan: Ikaw, Bangko, Industriya at Gobyerno. It is a government agency that seeks to provide affordable home financing for Filipinos.

For most Filipinos, this PAG-IBIG Housing Program is the most affordable option. It has 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and up to 30 years of financing terms. Last July 2009, Pag- IBIG has become mandatory to all employees covered under SSS, GSIS and even Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW). To avail of Pag-IBIG housing program, you have to be a member with at least 24 months of contribution, not more than 65 years old at the time of application provided you are no more than 70 years old at the time of loan maturity and is qualified with income requirements based on the loanable amount. The housing developer makes the background and credit check to ensure their clients are qualified. For more information please check the Pag-IBIG website.

Okay, let us look into how I save money on my Pag-IBIG Housing loan.

I had availed an Economic Housing financed through Pag-IBIG. The price of the property is pretty fair at around Php 900,000 for a 75 sqm lot. We have been hunting a house and lot package that meets all of our preference and capacity and fortunately a good developer in the metro tapped a new market segment below its existing brands and so they offered economic housing. First thing I made is, if the developer is accredited by Pag-IBIG and yes it is.
It’s amazing this developer required 10% Down Payment (DP), usually some developers require 20% DP before you can apply the financing through PAG-IBIG. Now, it’s confirmed that housing loan with this developer at 90% to 95% of the total price, can be approved by Pag-IBIG, and even banks actually, cool, right? So in this case, we only needed to pay a DP of 5% to 10%, that is around Php. 45,000 to Php. 90,000, so that the developer will start to construct the house.
What’s the big deal with 95% approvable loanable amount? You only need to cash out a lower amount to avail of the program. More important is, the 90% to 95% loanable amount means the Developer’s Housing package has a high appraisal value. For a client to be allowed such high loanable percentage through a developer, it can mean the developer is credible and that the Banks and Pag-IBIG have confidence on the developer.

Yes, it’s a good deal, but, what did we do to save around Php. 448,200 on the loan? Check it out and compare.







Table 1 shows a Php. 124,560 savings if I was going to avail of the 10% DP and a 90% loanable amount.

Okay, I can save Php. 124,560 within 30 years if could pay the 10% DP of Php. 90,000. Actually that saving for 30 years of payment is very small amount, considering I could use the Php. 45,000 to other priority expenses.









Using Table 2, the 90% Loanable Amount that is Php. 810,000 has 8.5% interest rate. Since, nothing is ever stable nowadays, especially on income and expenses, I want to make the monthly amortization as low as possible and at the same time, save on this housing loan.
For me, the 8.5% interest rate is very high for a 30-year loan. Can’t do much with the number of years(30 years term) because that’s what I’m capable of. But I realized I can do a way with the 8.5% interest rate. How? I opted for the 7% interest rate. Instead of paying the standard 10% DP (90,000), I need to pay more for the DP in order that the loanable amount will become Php. 749,000. This would then be below 750,000 loanable and would qualify me for a 7% interest.










The developer will be more than happy if the clients could make more down payment as possible, also it will make your housing loan more eligible for approval. However, In Pag-IBIG Financing we need to comply with their Net Disposable Income requirement, how to compute? See table 4.







In my preferred loanable amount of Php. 749,000 I can save as much as Php. 448,200 on a 30-year loan. I am also Real Estate Practitioner, I know what’s 

best for my investment. I also recommend this strategy to my clients, usually to those who have a lower monthly income. Though you need to cash out a bigger Down Payment, consider how much you can save in the long run.

At least, I can sleep well with a Php. 4,983 monthly amortization. Clients could also make advance or balloon payment during the loan though I need to research more on that.

Maybe, after 5 years, that Php 4,983 per month will become more affordable as salary increases and considering that the value of land appreciates. For me, it’s a good buy and the best option.

Hope I was able to help by sharing what I know. Veteran practitioners know this and I’m open for their clarification, comments and feedback. Anyway, it’s based on my personal knowledge and experiences as a Real Estate Practitioner; I do not represent Pag-IBIG Fund or developers for this blog, for your concerns please check their website.



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If you are a client and making an inquiry to an agent, the first thing you would want to know is the location of the project. These days, residential housing is no longer applicable at Metro Manila, buyers should accept that fact, unless you are planning of condominium living.

Buyers of residential housing at 90’s were very fortunate to have availed residential housing property in some parts of city which at the time is not yet a developed area and been fortunate with their decision because of business development come in their neighbourhood.

The trend will also be the same, whereas the towns of Cavite, Laguna and Bulacan will become progressive cities; actually some of cities in these provinces are now progressive like Sta. Rosa, Calamba and Dasmarinas City. If you have been in these places, you would see it as next extension of Metro Manila.

Going back with project location, if your budget belongs to economic housing that is around 1 Million you can find a good project around the places of Imus, Gen. Trias, Silang, Carmona and others towns in Cavite and others towns in Laguna.

Having said of the possible locations, if you are not familiar with the location of certain project you may ask your agent about it or personally make a research about how far it is, for example from Alabang Metropolis or Baclaran Church for South Projects as your point of destination.

I’ve come to encounter that situation before on one of my clients, a Filipina with a foreigner husband. For my Filipina client, the location is not a problem after our site viewing, since she is not also familiar with the location he asked me to explain it to her foreigner husband and his first questions was: How far is the project from Baclaran? That question gave me an insight how very detailed foreigners are. Instead of asking how many minutes it would take to travel by car he asked for how many kilometres/miles it is. Since traffic is everywhere; places will soon develop traffic, so distance by time is not always a factor for other clients.

I told my client to get back on that concern within the day, and I made a research online. I got the site of Google Distance Calculator at Daftlogic.com and find it very useful with all my next projects.

Avida Settings Cavite 4 Million to 9 Million Houses

For example.
As shown above, the project Avida Settings Cavite is in prime location, having a 2 km. distance from SM Molino means a very accessible to shops your groceries and aside from the planned Town Center Mall managed by Ayala, infront of this project. While going to Baclaran is 20 km. away that might be a 25 to 30 minute drive in moderate traffic. Going to Alabang where you might be working is only 8.5 km via Daang-hari Road, add to that is it’s accessibility to public transportation. While if you want to be relaxed on weekend and playing golf, we have the Orchard Golf Course with only 3.6 km distance.

The site Daftlogic.com had been very helpful in my expertise because it adds some knowledge and confidence in dealing clients. Clients themselves could also try it especially if cannot go to the site personally.

Try it at Daftlogic.com, get back on us and give us your reviews.

The Philippines belongs to typhoon belt of the Pacific that is frequently visited by typhoons or storms per year. Aside from typhoons, the uncontrolled deforestation is our environmental problem alongside is inappropriate throwing of garbage everywhere that frequently caused us flooding particularly in Metro Manila.

It’s not to refresh all the damaged those typhoons brought us but it would help understand our subject matter: Altitude of our location - the height above sea level.

Being concern with location’s altitude as a real estate practitioner, I made some research but could not really distinguish how I could make some credible altitude information about certain areas.

A certain location might be flooded because of poor drainage system or could be caused by garbage blocking. With this, at least we can do something to avoid flooding problem. If our house location is situated at low altitude or just as level as the sea, we cannot do something in this matter but to be attentive with warnings and relocation if typhoon occurs.

During my research, I found some sites that could help us determine the altitude of places.
ALTITUDE.nu

Here are the easy steps to know your location altitude using the site:
1. Markers are used for showing the altitude for a specific place.
2. Above the marker is the altitude that shows in either meters or feet.
3. For placing a marker click on the desired place on the map.
4. Click and hold on a marker for the possibility to move it around.

Sample altitude using Altitude.nu