Socialized housing bonds eyed

State-run National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC) plans to issue bonds aimed at boosting financing for socialized housing projects before the year ends.

Also, NHMFC president Felixberto U. Bustos Jr. told a press briefing that the agency, together with its counterparts in Indonesia and Malaysia, were looking to come out with a commingled bond fund to give housing players in the region greater access to the fixed-income market.

Bustos said NHMFC would submit $5 million to $8 million worth of its best assets for the shared fund.

The NHMFC official added that counterpart agencies in other Asean countries would also be enjoined to join the initiative during the Asian Secondary Mortgage Market Association meeting to held on Sept. 29, following its hosting of the Second Asean Fixed Income Summit on Sept. 28.

“If we’re able to come up with a big enough pool, we’ll be able to sell all over Asean,” Bustos said.

While initially focusing on financing needs for housing, the Asean-wide fund might eventually be expanded to also become an alternative source of funds for long-term infrastructure projects, he added.

As the bulk of the country’s 3.6 million housing backlog is in the lower end or socialized housing sector, NHMFC is also planning to issue bonds whose main beneficiaries would be players in socialized housing. Ben O. de Vera