Housing Minister, Shaik Baksh is urging banks to be more flexible in granting housing loans to poor applicants and is urging other banks to enter the market.

He made this call last week at a press conference at the GTV studios and said right now the poor were almost excluded from being granted a loan by banks because of the eligibility criteria. “But at a government level we would have to do something about it.”

The minister is to meet with some of the banks this month to discuss the problem.

He also noted that the ministry had advertised for a mortgage finance consultant to help reduce the length of time persons take before they could secure a home loan. Baksh said there had been meetings with the mortgage banks and officials at the Deeds Registry on the issue but it still took four to six months to process a loan and sometimes longer. According to the minister this was affecting the government’s construction of houses under the low-income housing revolving fund, noting that it sometimes took a year for the money to come through.

He said his ministry would be setting up a special desk within another month to promote housing development. Baksh observed that many persons after receiving their house lots did not know how to proceed in constructing their homes. According to him, the consultant would give advice on how to get a building plan and how to access financing.

He noted that the interest rate on loans was now as low as eight per cent which he said was a good rate to attract people to build a house.

He noted that the major institutions involved in housing loans were the New Building Society and Citizens Bank.

He acknowledged the contribution of Citizens Bank for the first part of this year, but is calling on other banks to get on board.

On other housing matters, Baksh reported the ministry had moved ahead in the distribution of house lots but on a far reduced scale. According to the minister, in Region Three a number of house lots were handed out to residents of Tuschen and Parfait Harmonie. He said Parfait Harmonie would be the largest housing scheme in the country with over 6,000 house lots distributed. He said infrastructure for 500 residents in Phase One was in place.

He added that a large group of Lindeners had approached his ministry to open up a scheme in Wisroc. He reported that work had commenced in the area and that a block and occupational survey had already been completed.

In terms of titling, Baksh said the ministry was moving aggressively in this area, “but unless the allottee comes forward to process their document there is nothing the ministry could do.”

Baksh also said that the Ministry of Housing was helping the process by reducing the conveyance fee from $12,000 to $8,000. He said a one-stop shop was going to the regions and conducting conveyancing so citizens no longer had to go to the ministry.

In terms of housing construction, he said the ministry had a target of 270 houses for the revolving housing fund. He added that 238 house lots had been given to private firms to build homes.