Pag-IBIG Goes Digital, More Accessible to Fund 700,000 Houses in 6 Years
December 12, 2022
The Pag-IBIG Fund aims to provide 700,000 houses worth at least Php 900 billion for the next six years in support of the current administration’s Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino Program, the government agency shared at the PropTech Consortium of the Philippines held at the Marriott Hotel last November 22, 2022.
The theme of the PropTech Consortium of the Philippines Year 1 event is “Celebrate the digital transformation of the Philippine real estate industry.”
“[W]e have partners led by PropTech and stakeholders who join us who share our vision of providing affordable and quality housing,” Pag-IBIG Public and Media Affairs Department manager Domingo Jacinto Jr. said.
The rising housing backlog of the country sits at 6.5 million and the government aims to address it through building one million houses per year for the next six years or a total of six million homes for Filipinos.
Game Changers of PropTech Consortium of the Philippines
Property technology, or PropTech, uses data and the latest technology to generate tools and services to assist a property seeker’s online experience. The PropTech Consortium of the Philippines marked its first anniversary by inviting industry experts and guests to highlight the importance of new technology in the real estate market.
“The goal is to interconnect a sustainable, resilient, and smart communities through digital technologies,” said Emma Imperial, founder of the PropTech Consortium of the Philippines and Group Chair and CEO at Imperial Homes Group of Companies.
“The very objective of forming this association is to transform the real estate industry. Rosemarie Bosch Ong, COO of Wilcon Depot, said. “Housing is a hygiene factor of every Filipino’s dreams. Wilcon [Depot] is building big ideas [for] every Filipino dream.”
One Filipinos Worldwide Coalition Partylist (OFW Partylist) Rep. Marissa “Del Mar” Magsino shared that digitalization is “the way to go” in the real estate industry. She is also the chairperson emerita of the National Real Estate Association. “The OFW partylist ha[s] been and always [will] be partners with the housing industry,” she added.
Impact of Real Estate Digitalization
The effects of digitalization in the real estate industry are evident and go beyond the industry – they impact the lives of Filipinos.
“The path is clear for us, it’s about digital and the way for us to make our services accessible to all members is by opening the gateway of our digital services,” Jacinto Jr. shared on the implementation of the virtual Pag-IBIG services.
Meanwhile, Ong said the digitalization of the industry will improve the supply chain by making it more accessible to the market.
“[W]e’re creating an ecosystem where all the stakeholders are interconnected. It’s going to be more cost-efficient if you digitize it, and it will stimulate not just the real estate industry, but the economy as a whole,” the Wilcon Depot COO added.
Imperial shared how the real estate portal KB Realty Group served as their partner to address property needs. “[A]fter the pandemic, we immediately went to digital selling and that was through the help of Lamudi,” she said. “[G]etting digitized, together with KB Realty Group, we can adapt faster.”
