Interest Rate

Home Loan Restructuring Program

It all started with delayed or missed payments against the home loan obligation.

Those who have been granted a Housing Loan by the Pag-IBIG Fund should be aware that three (3) missed payments on the monthly amortization could lead to foreclosure — a sort of disaster.

What would you do if your property is on the brink of foreclosure and you are facing financial difficulties as well?

We can’t tell how many of our visitors are into that situations.

If you know someone who is facing foreclosure, or has already defaulted on their amortizations, please help them out by sharing this article. This article could save them, or their house for that matter.

A Visitor’s Comment: “Last year my husband applied for a housing loan and it was approved, but now we have missed more than 3 payments. Is it possible to repay the missed payments and reduce the mortgage term of the loan? What step should we do? Thanks!”

Special Note: Pag-IBIG Fund is currently running a Housing Loan Restructuring and Penalty Condonation Program. The program started last January 2, 2012 and will end June 30, 2012. After June 30, only the loan restructuring will be entertained. Members who have missed paying their monthly amortizations for more than three (3) months may avail of this program.

Condonation means the relief given by law in the payment of penalties, surcharges and a portion of accrued interest to be determined by the Pag-IBIG Fund.

Loan Restructuring refers to a process where the principal terms and conditions of the original loan are modified in accordance with an agreement setting forth a new plan of payment or a schedule of payment on a periodic basis.

Loan Restructuring : Refinancing Under Financial Distress

Pag-IBIG Housing Loan Restructure There are many reasons why borrowers default on their loan payments. Luckily for the Pag-IBIG members, there’s a Loan Restructuring program that they can take advantage of as a remedy to their delinquent accounts.

Here are the benefits of the Loan Restructuring Program:

It allows the home owner to save the property from being taken away from them through the foreclosure process.
It allows the borrower to shorten or lengthen (and thus the term “restructure” ) the term of the loan, whatever is deemed an affordable loan term for him.
Interests and penalties due during the delinquency period could be waived.

Who Can and Who Can’t Apply For the Home Loan Restructuring Program?

Member-borrowers who have not yet availed of any penalty condonation program from any Government Financial Institution, for example, HDMF, GSIS, SSS.
Borrowers who have missed payments on their monthly amortizations for at least 3 months.
Borrowers whose property was already endorsed for foreclosure, but whose redemption period has not yet lapsed.
Borrowers whose property was already foreclosed but the winning bidder is the Pag-IBIG Fund.
Legal heirs of deceased borrowers with unpaid loan balances after application of the proceeds of the Mortgage/Sales Redemption Insurance (MRI/SRI).
Successors-in-interest of borrowers who have assumed the original mortgage as supported by legal documents duly approved by the Fund.

However, Pag-IBIG is very strict against some accounts that should not be eligible to avail of this program. The following accounts are exempted from tapping this benefit:

Any account without a single payment since takeout, including those whose only payment resulted from its deduction from the takeout proceeds.
An account in which the housing unit has been abandoned by the borrower for more than one (1) year from date of delinquency.
An account in which the housing unit is occupied by a third party other than the original registered beneficiary or his/her legal heirs or successors-in-interest.
An account that has been foreclosed and another party is the winning bidder.
An account that has been foreclosed and with expired redemption period.
An account under a Contract-to-Sell that has been cancelled.
An account that has been surrendered to the Fund through Dacion en Pago, the title of which had been consolidated or transferred in the name of the Fund.
A Contract-to-Sell account covered by the developer’s buyback guarantee.

About The New Restructured Housing Loan

The following are among the most important things you should know about the new restructured loan.

Loan Term — The Home Development Mutual Fund offers a very generous loan term of up to 30 years on the newly restructured housing loan. However, it should be noted that the age of the borrower must not be more than 70 by the time the loan matures.

Interest Rate — The interest rate is 12% per annum or the rate of the original loan, whichever is lower and must be applied against the interest-bearing portion of the loan amount.

Penalty — If the borrower fails to pay any amount due on or before the due date he will charged a penalty of one-twentieth of one percent (1/20 of 1%) of the amount due for the month per day of delay.

Repricing — If the original loan amount is more than Three Hundred Thousand Pesos (P300,000.00), the new restricted loan shall be subject to repricing every three years, reckoned from the date of approval of loan restructuring.

Compare This With: The Current Rates of Interest and Penalties of Pag-IBIG Loans

What To Do Next?

If you are now so eager to restructure, please visit the Pag-IBIG Office that has the jurisdiction of your account and possibly your mortgaged property. Inquire about the full details of this program.

Plus, remember that the penalty dues will only be condoned when you apply not later than June 30, 2012. (As far as this current program is concerned.)

After reading this article, I hope that you will share this to a friend who is also a member of the Pag-IBIG Fund just so he/she knows what to do when foreclosure clock begins to tick.

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“Home Loan Restructuring Program” is written by Carlos Velasco.

Mortgage Calculator and Amortization Schedule… Plus, How To Save On Your Loan Payments

by Pag-IBIG Financing Admin

In the previous article about amortizations, you learned how to determine the monthly amortization given a particular loan amount, loan term (in years) and interest rate (per annum).

It is very important to bear in mind that these three factors primarily determine the scheduled amount of the monthly amortization.

This article somehow extends on the previous one and here I’ll discuss the following topics with the help of an online mortgage calculator, which is also included here:

How to generate the Monthly Amortization Schedule.
The two components that go into the monthly amortization: interest and principal dues.
As the title of this article says, “How to save on your loan payments.”

The Mortgage Loan Calculator

With the help of the Mortgage Calculator shown below, let’s see how the amortization schedule looks like on a monthly basis.

Important Note When Using The Mortgage Calculator: When you click on the Calculate Button, the result displays in a pop-up window. To close the window, simply click the Close Button located at the upper right corner of the resulting pop-up window.

As you can see, the tool has some default values already and if those values perfectly match your loan, all you have to do is click on the Calculate Button to show the results. But for most of us, our cases are of course different from the default example.

Let’s say your property costs P 2,000,000 and you are to put 20% down payment up-front — that should be P 400,000 out of your pocket. Furthermore, let’s say that the going interest rate in the market is 10.5% per annum and that you plan to pay the PhP 1,600,000 loan in 3 years only. From here, you want to determine the following:

Monthly Amortization Amount
Monthly Amortization Schedule

If you have entered the right values from the calculator shown above, you should get the monthly amortization at PhP 52,003.91 and that the total amount paid in interest for the whole 36-month duration of the loan should be PhP 272,140.75 (see at the bottom part of the resulting Amortization Table).

Here are some graphics to visually guide you on the results.

Monthly Amortization Schedule Table

Figure 1 : Monthly Amortization Table for P 1.6M loan payable in 3 years at 10.5% interest rate.

The Amortization Table above only partially shows 9 months out of a total of 36 months amortization schedule.

You will find the total Principal and Interest Payments at the bottom of the Tabular data when you scroll it down. It should look like this on your screen:

Pag-IBIG Loan Table

Figure 2 : Monthly Amortization Table continued from the previous Table. This time, only the last part of the amortization schedule is being shown.

If your results don’t match with this one, please do it all over again until you get it right. This is a very powerful tool of analysis right at your disposal.

More On Interest and Principal Dues

Take another look at the resulting Amortization Schedule Table.

If you add up the Interest amount due and the Principal amount due at any row, it always results to 52,003.91.

That magic number is not at all magical. That’s your monthly amortization!

In other words, the amortization consists of two components, namely: the principal due and the interest due. Each payment that you make against your scheduled amortization, a portion of it goes to the principal payment and the other portion goes to the pay the interest.

From the example above, your first monthly payment of 52,003.91 pays for the PhP 14,000.00 interest and the PhP 38,003.91 principal. On the second month, PhP 13,667.47 is allocated for the interest payment and PhP 38,336.44 for the principal payment.

How To Save on Your Loan Payments

Have you noticed that at the early part of the schedule – that’s the first few rows of the tabular data – so much goes into the interest payment and only a small portion goes into the principal payment? And at the later stage of the schedule, a small amount is now allocated to the interest while the bigger part now goes to the principal.

(Actually, this will become more apparent at longer loan terms, say 15 or 30 years.)

This is always the case for mortgage loans: it follows the Declining Balance Model. That is, assuming your payments are religiously made on schedule, the principal balance is reduced over time and the next schedule is also smaller since the interest is always applied on the remaining balance.

So in other words, if you make a payment that is greater than the scheduled amount, the excess value is deducted from the principal, reducing the remaining balance further.

Actually there is a two-fold effect when you make advanced payments against your mortgage loan:

you save on the interest payments
you pay off your loan earlier

From here, we can say that one of the ways you can save on your loan payments is to make advanced payments. This way, you are actually save on paying the interests.

There are methods that help you determine the effects of advanced payments at any period of your amortization schedule, but we won’t discuss that in this article yet. Suffice it to say, that making advanced payments is almost always to your advantage.

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This article on Mortgage Calculator and Amortization Schedule is written by Carlos Velasco.

Pag-IBIG Housing Loan Amortization Demystified

by Pag-IBIG Financing Admin

This is one of those topics that a lot real estate buyers are clueless about. Many of them just don’t know how the monthly amortization is determined. This is true for both the first time as well as the seasoned home buyers — and a few real estate agents I’ve met. They simply let the bank, or any lending institution for that matter, handle the computation for them.

Take this particular question shown below which is commonly encountered by real estate sales people.

“How much is the monthly payment for this house which is priced at P1.2M?”

First, any attempt to give a figurative amount to answer that question is meaningless. For one, the question itself is already wrong.

Home Loan Computation: The Amortization Formula

The monthly amortization — or the monthly payment, if you will — is a figure that is dependent on three factors:

Loan Amount. The actual amount borrowed, usually the selling price less the down payment.
Interest rate. This figure is usually expressed as per annum value, likewise known as annualized interest rate. If you are familiar with bank financing, you have probably noticed that the interest rate is different for each bank. In the case of Pag-IBIG Housing Loan, the interest rate is dependent on the loan amount.
Loan term. This tells how long the loan is going to be fully paid; also normally expressed in terms of the number of years. In Pag-IBIG Home Financing, the loan term is usually 15 years or 30 years, though, you may also opt for a shorter loan term.

To determine the monthly amortization, we can simply use this equation:

Amortization Equation -- For Pag-IBIG Housing Loans or Bank Loans

Essentially, this amortization formula says that

Given a fixed interest rate and loan term, your monthly amortization is directly proportional to the amount of loan. The bigger the loan amount, the bigger the monthly amortization due.
Given a fixed interest rate and a particular loan amount, the monthly amortization is inversely proportional to the payment period. The shorter the payment period, the larger the amortization; the longer the payment period, the smaller the monthly payment due.

In other words, while you may be paying a higher monthly amount for a 15-year mortgage compared to a 30-year mortgage, the primary advantage to you is that the loan if fully paid in a shorter period of time.

The main advantage of using the formula above is that it is very handy and versatile. Anyone can use it given any amount of loan, loan term and interest rate.

However, a lot of people are simply lost with Mathematical equations. And not amount of explanations will ever want them to use any formula to determine any figure.

Luckily for them, there is also another way of determining the monthly amortization and that is by using an Mortgage Factors Table such as the one shown below.

The Pag-IBIG Mortgage Factors Table

Take note that this table is made especially for The Pag-IBIG Housing Loan with interest rates effective at the time of this writing (April 2011). You can use it for loan terms starting from 1 year to a maximum of 30 years loan term.

The annual interest rate shown is only the following: 6%, 7%, 8.5%, 9.5%, 10.5% and 11.5%. For interest rates other than these, the table is not applicable anymore. It’s best to use a Mortgage Calculator – a tool which will become available on this website soon.

Pag-IBIG Home Loan Amortization Factors

Given the table above, it is now very easy to determine the monthly amortization by simply following this understandable formula:

Monthly Amortization = (Loanable Amount) x (Factor Rate)

Sample Computation

Consider this hypothetical case: You are buying a Pag-IBIG Home worth P 1.2M and you are planning to put a down payment of P 240,000 which is 20% of the selling price. How much then would be the monthly amortization if you are to pay it is 15 years? How about if the loan is to be paid in 30 years?

Please be guided by the formula above and the interest rates of Pag-IBIG Housing Loan shown below.

Pag-IBIG Housing Loan Interest Rate

From the case in point and looking at the Factor Rates shown at the Table, we can gather the following:

Loan Amount: 960,000 (this is Price 1,200,000 less Down Payment of 240,000 )

For 15-Year Mortgage, the Factor Rate = 0.00984740.

Monthly Amortization (in 15 years) = (960,000) x (0.00984740) = 9,453.50

For a 30-year mortgage, the factor rate = 0.00768913

Monthly Amortization (in 30 years) = (960,000) x (0.00768913) = 7,381.56

When using this formula, take note we are not putting into consideration some other trivial payments like fire insurance, mortgage redemption insurance, membership dues and others. We are leaving that for the sake of simplifying the illustration.

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Update: A more detailed article about the Amortization and Mortgage Calculator has been made on this website. Please check it now.

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“Pag-IBIG Housing Loan Amortization Demystified” is written by Carlos Velasco.

What Is Loan-To-Value Ratio?

by Pag-IBIG Financing Admin

A key concept in helping home buyers assess how much they can borrow to finance their real property investment is the Loan – To – Value Ratio.

The Loan–To–Value Ratio (LTV for brevity) is the amount of the borrower’s loan divided by the appraised value of the property.

LTV = (Loan Amount) / (Appraised Value)

To illustrate, assume that Mr. Delos Reyes purchased a new house by the countryside worth PhP 3,000,000. He plans to borrow Php 2,400,000 from a local bank to finance his real estate investment.

Applying the concept, we get a Loan–To–Value Ratio of 80% for Mr. Delos Reyes.

LTV = (2,400,000) / (3,000,000)
LTV = 80%

Take note that in this example, we are assuming that the selling price is also the appraised value. In reality, banks will conduct their own appraisal of the property. The resulting Appraised value is used instead of the selling price, to divide the loan amount to finally determine the LTV ratio.

Equity and Loan-To-Value

Actually, the LTV ratio is the reverse of a borrower’s equity. Therefore, in our set example, since Mr. Delos Reyes has an 80% LTV ratio; he has equity of 20%.

By equity, we mean “how much a borrower owns in the value of his / her real property investment.”

So in Mr. Delos Reyes’s case, he only owns 20% of the value of his investment and owes 80% of it.

From the lender’s viewpoint, the higher equity you have tied up on your property, the less risky you are as a borrower.

A high loan-to-value ration also means that a home buyer owes more than he owns in the value of his investment. Therefore, banks will see the home buyer’s loan as one that is risky.

Low Down, High Loan-To-Value

Pag-IBIG Fund is a leading company in the Philippines that offers lower down payment and a high loan-to-value ratio, as high as 97.0% is some cases.

Other financial institutions are offering the same. But you will be required to pay for a private mortgage insurance to lessen the impact of the risk that they are placing on you as a borrower.

Financial Leverage and Loan-To-Value Ratio

Financial Leverage means the use of borrowed money to finance a real estate investment. From an investor’s viewpoint, the higher the leverage, the better because of the following reasons:

Their risk is minimized
More Cash available for other investments

The Importance of Loan-To-Value Ratio

Financial institutions generally look for three vital factors when qualifying you for a loan. These are:

credit score
debt-to-income ratio
loan-to-value ratio

These factors are the benchmarks that helps the banks determine the following:

the amount of loan to give you
the interest rate of the loan
the loan term
whether the borrower is required to pay for a private mortgage insurance

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This article on Loan-To-Value ratio is written by Niel Kyro Jo.

Mortgage Loan Fundamentals

by Pag-IBIG Financing Admin

Real estate properties are seldom bought on spot cash. The vast majority are purchased with a little down payment and mortgage loans on the balance.

A mortgage loan is a form of secured financing; that is, the lender gives you the needed financing and in return you pledge the property as collateral.

In a mortgage loan, there are two very important documents that you will be committed to:

Note – is a promise to repay the loan on a timely basis
Mortgage or Deed of Trust – is a pledge to secure the loan with the real estate in question in case the borrower fails on his loan obligations.

A mortgage creates a lien on the property, which gives the lender the right to foreclose the property in question.

A loan default happens when you fail to repay the loan “on time” as stipulated on the contract. If that happens, the lender can foreclose the mortgage and take on the property.

Interest Rate and Loan Term

A mortgage loan has two very important components that you need to be aware of.

Interest rate – is the price of using the lender’s money and is applied to the principal balance. A lower interest rate means a cheaper use of the lender’s money and should be good for you.
Loan term – the time it takes to pay off the whole amount borrowed. Loan term usually spans a number of years.

These two factors primarily affect the installment payments, which is usually on a monthly basis.

The amount shown on the monthly installment schedule always remains constant. When you pay off a loan, a portion goes to the interest payment and another portion goes to pay off the principal amount. In other words, the principal balance is reduced with each payment that you make. And as a consequence, the interest is also reduced as the loan matures. Early installments mostly go to the interest payments while later installments mostly cover the principal.

Down Payment and Mortgage

Most lenders will not grant you a loan that is equivalent to the selling price of the property. In many cases, they will have to appraise the property and you will be asked to put a down payment and loan the remaining balance of the appraised value.

The down payment is sometimes referred to as equity on the property.

The standard down payment is 20% of the appraised value of the property; 80% being your loan or the financed amount.

The more money you put as down payment, the lower your loan will be. And always remember that the loan bears an interest.

Now comes the question: Which is better of the two?

A low down payment and large loan.
A large down payment and small loan.

There are arguments favoring one over the other. It’s all up to you and your circumstances. But sometimes, the lender will force you to take on lower loan (with large down payment) to lower their risk of loaning you the money to finance your real estate purchase. That’s just pure business.

Pag-IBIG Mortgage Loan

Depending on the property and where you are buying it, Pag-IBIG Fund may give you a large amount of loan which is almost equal to the selling price of the property. But always bear in mind the maximum loan amount the Pag-IBIG Fund can grant you. If you find the amount too small for the property you are considering, you may need to come up with a large down payment or you may use an alternative financial institution.

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Mortgage Loan Fundamentals is written by Carlos Velasco.

Pag-IBIG Housing Loan 101

by Pag-IBIG Financing Admin

One of the main concerns of Pag-IBIG Members is getting a Housing Loan. And why not? That is one of the privileges they can get as members of the Fund Company.

This article will address a number of those basic concerns about Housing Loan.

Who can avail of Pag-IBIG Housing Loan?

Pag-IBIG Loans are allowed only to Pag-IBIG Members who are at least two years already and who have contributed at least 24 months. Of course, there are other requirements, before the loan is finally granted, but the point is Loans from Pag-IBIG is only open to its members.

How much can I loan from Pag-IBIG?

The maximum housing loan amount that can be granted to any member is only PhP 3,000,000. So that means if the property you are considering is priced more than PhP 3M, you need to come up with some form of up-front payment (or equity) to settle the price difference virus the loan amount. Or, you may opt for another financial institution. Please refer to the Mortgage Loan Fundamentals.

What type of Real Estate or Real Estate Projects can be financed with Pag-IBIG?

Pag-IBIG Housing Loans can be used to financed any of the following:

Lot-Only Property — It could be a raw land or parcel of land in a subdivision development.
House Construction or Improvement — The residential unit should be constructed on a lot owned by the member.
House and Lot Purchase — New or old house with lot. If you are buying from a developer, please check with your broker/agent if Pag-IBIG can be used to finance the property you wanted to buy.
Refinancing Of An Existing Mortgage Loan

Always bear in mind that you can only get a maximum of PhP 3M loan and you are limited to residential projects only.

How much is the interest rate of Pag-IBIG Housing Loan?

Good question! Most buyers of real estate in the Philippines have no idea of the interest rate that comes with the loan. As a buyer, you should make it a top priority to know about the interest rate and be able to compare it to competing lenders.

(Interest rates are also discussed in Mortgage Fundamentals article.)

Luckily for Pag-IBIG Members, the interest rates are among the lowest in the market! Depending on the amount of loan, the interest runs from 6% to 11.5% per annum.