The Chamber of Real Estate & Builders’ Association Inc. (CREBA), the voice of the country’s real estate industry, has reiterated its call to pool some P270-billion funding because the current policy has not produced the required volume of housing units for Filipinos due scarcity of affordable and available funds, especially for socialized housing buyers. In a speech at the CREBA National Convention & Housing Expo on Sept. 27, CREBA President Noel Toti  M. Cariño stressed the need to amend the Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter Finance Act or the CISFA LAW in order to pool some P270-billion housing funds under a Centralized Home Financing Program (CHFP). According to Cariño, the proposed CISFA amendment has been espoused by several lawmakers in the present and past two Congresses with the aim of providing access to all income-earning Filipinos to fixed, low-interest, long-term housing loans whether or not they are members of the Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), or the Pag-IBIG Fund. Under the bill, the annual CHFP funding of P270 billion will be sourced through bond investments by the SSS at P25 billion; GSIS at P25 billion; a minimum of P70 billion or all of Pag-IBIG Fund’s investable funds for housing; P100 billion from the unused or residual agri-agra funds of banks; and a P50 billion government budgetary allocation to serve the informal settlers’ segment — all with mandatory guaranty cover from the Philippine Guaranty Corporation. It also provides for VAT-free and payable up to 30 years, loans for subdivision or medium-rise condominium units will be up to P1.5 million at three percent fixed interest rate for socialized housing, and up to P3.2 million at four percent for economic housing. Cariño noted that CREBA has been pushing the CISFA Law amendment because the enacted the landmark Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA), as amended by Republic Act No. 10884 of 2016 backed as well by CREBA, has not served its purpose. UDHA seeks to compel both private subdivision and condominium developers to produce socialized housing equivalent to 15 percent and 5 percent, respectively, of their total project cost or area. But its  supposed performance, he said has “not served to de-escalate the problem.” It has not also addressed the most pressing issues of “extremely limited homebuyer financing and scarce funds for public housing,” he added. Thus, he said, CREBA continues to pursue its commitment to pursue its 5-point Agenda for Housing and achieve its vision of providing a “HOME FOR EVERY FILIPINO”. CREBA aims to intensify housing production rate to the level of at least 500,000 housing units per year in order to keep up with a ballooning backlog of at least 6.57 million units plus future housing needs. “Apart from the obvious need, making housing the centerpiece program is not only a social imperative, but an economic one owing to the housing industry’s tremendous output multiplier, income multiplier and labor multiplier effects,” he said.