Faisal Islamic Bank receives five low-income housing mortgage requests

Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt has received the first five applications Thursday related to the central bank’s low-income mortgage initiative, said its general bank, Sabry El-Bendary.

In addition, Faisal Islamic Bank aims to inject 200 million Egyptian pounds ($25.5 million) in favour of the CBE’s initiative during the upcoming phase, Bendary said.

Speaking to Amwal Al Ghad, Bendary said has sought the CBE’s approval of these applications, anticipating that the bank would receive a massive number of applications after the CBE had amended the mortgage finance initiative last month.

According to the new amendments, mortgage finance has made available to a new segment under the name of “privileged average income”, which aims to open the way for youth wishing to acquire housing through mortgage finance initiatives.

In 2014, Egypt’s Central Bank (CBE) has launched an initiative worth 20 billion Egyptian pounds (US$1.4 billion) to stimulate the mortgage sector.

Through the new initiative, CBE would lend Egypt’s working banks 20 billion Egyptian pounds for 20 years to be lent to people of low-income and average-income at 7 and 8 percent interest, respectively, in order to buy housing units in new urban communities.