Banks join govt in low-cost housing plan

The banking sector has joined forces with the Ministry of Housing to provide approximately 100,000 housing solutions to persons in the low income bracket over the next ten years. The two groups met yesterday  at the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Westmoorings, where a presentation was made by general manager of Republic Finance and Merchant Bank, Cheryl Greaves, on behalf of the financial institutions on the financial aspects of Government’s housing thrust.

Greaves identified three major needs of the Housing Development Programme, which are construction funding for contractors, mortgage financing for purchasers of housing stock and the provision of mortgages for houses in the $150,000 range and below. She revealed that where mortgage financing for purchasers of house stock was concerned, approximately TT $1.2 billion in takeout mortgage financing was required for the first two years of the project. The TT Mortgage and Finance Company would provide $500 million, she stated, while the consortium of commercial banks, which includes Republic Bank, RBTT, First Citizens Bank and Scotiabank, will finance $350 million in 2004 and a similar amount in 2005 to meet the shortfall. There were also opportunities for other financial institutions to provide funding, she noted.

Additionally, Greaves continued, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) had already allocated US $16.5 million to fund approximately 35 percent of the housing costs as part of an IDB/Government subsidised programme. The consortium will  provide supplementary funding required to complete the purchase of homes by applicants provided with subsidies under the IDB loan, she said. The National Housing Authority (NHA), she maintained, would pre-qualify applicants in accordance with terms and conditions of preferential rate mortgage and enter into purchase contracts with applicants.