As more and more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) fail to keep with payments for their real properties and condo units, will the banks be wont to go for foreclosure?
A seasoned real estate broker says he does not think so.
Vince Lubrin, licensed real estate broker with Robinson’s Land Corp. Int’l., said: “Banks will be lenient to make re-structural loan proposals suitable for both parties,” he said. “Remember that the banks’ main business is to keep their money moving. As much as possible, they don’t want to foreclose properties because it would be an idle asset on their part,” he added.
Lubrin said he anticipates that many OFWs in the UAE would default on their payments due to job loss or salary deductions.
He said it would be better for OFWs facing foreclosures to get in touch with their loan officer in the bank and make a compromise agreement.
Meantime, he said that most of their clients caught in a bind with payments were those who have signed in the pre-selling stage.
“Since the Covid pandemic started last March 2020, some of our clients particularly in UAE, have difficulties in paying their monthly amortization, especially those who were still in the pre-selling stage,” Lubrin said.
He said those who have already mortgaged their condo units to the banks and were renting out were not much affected. “Only very few of them,” he said.
Lubrin noted that real estate companies have implemented a moratorium during the pandemic in compliance with the Bayanihan Act where they did not collect monthly amortization from March to June, 2020.
“Personally,” he said, “I advise my client to write an email regarding the non-payment of their monthly amortization and ask for an extension, so that it would not be an additional burden on their part to pay since expenses have piled up,” Lubrin said.
The Daily Bread 