Egypt's Central Bank launches LE100B initiative for mortgage financing

CAIRO – 13 July 2021: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) launched a mortgage finance initiative with facilitation, including allocating an amount of LE 100 billion through banks or mortgage finance companies to finance the purchase of housing units for low- and middle-income people at a decreasing interest rate of 3 percent for a period of up to 30 years.

This comes in implementation of the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Republic, to provide the opportunity for citizens of low and middle incomes to obtain adequate housing at subsidized prices and over long-term periods of time.

CBE stated in a statement, Tuesday, that the initiative applies to low-income people whose value of income and units are determined through the Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Support Fund, so that the maximum net monthly income is currently LE 4,500 for a single individual and LE 6,000 for a family. The unit value is currently LE 350,000, and a 10 percent down payment is to be paid.

As for the middle-income beneficiaries of the initiative, the maximum net monthly income is LE 10,000 for a single individual and LE 14,000 for the family, and 15 percent down payment is paid as a minimum of the total value of the unit, whose price is up to LE 1.1 million as a maximum. Its price exceeds LE 1.1 million up to LE 1.4 million, with a minimum down payment of 20 percent of the total unit value.

The initiative requires that the beneficiary be an Egyptian, with the possibility for self-employed, craftsmen and people with special needs who have income and pensioners to benefit from the initiative, so that the age of the beneficiary does not exceed 75 years at the end of the financing period, provided that the units are for permanent housing only, not seasonal, and that the units are completely finished and ready to move in, allowing banks to accept alternative collateral in case the unit cannot be registered and therefore cannot be mortgaged.

This comes with the aim of achieving societal justice, and providing the opportunity for all citizens to benefit from the mortgage financing initiatives offered by the state, and to benefit as many as possible from them, with funding available for only one unit under the new initiative.

The foregoing comes in support of the state's orientation to provide adequate housing and a decent life for simple citizens who wish to own housing units by alleviating their burdens, in continuation of the mortgage financing initiatives issued by the Central Bank during the previous years.