Gov’t expanding mortgage options for Guyanese

-adding another bank to housing programme

Government in the coming week would be adding another financial institution to its low-income housing programme, expanding the mortgage options for potential homeowners.  Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Hon. Dr. Ashni Singh, made this disclosure on Wednesday.

“We will be signing another agreement with another financial institution, which will be participating in our low-income housing programme for the first time,” he said.

Further, the Minister said, the private sector has an important role to play in the Government’s housing drive.

In the 2020 Emergency Budget, the Government increased the ceiling for low-income housing loans from $8 million to $10 million. This was further increased in the recently approved Budget 2021 from $10 million to $12 million, to make housing loans more affordable to borrowers within that range.

“In relation to the ceiling that is applicable to the low-income housing programme being implemented by the banks, that increase in ceiling is already applicable,” Minister Singh revealed.

In Budget 2020, the Government returned the Mortgage Interest Relief (MIR) to $30 million. The MIR is intended to make the portion of homeowners’ taxable income utilised to pay interest on their housing loans exempt from personal income tax.

On Wednesday, the Government formally handed over the approval for the New Building Society Limited to increase its mortgage ceiling from $12 million to $15 million. Additionally, in both budgets presented by the PPP/C Government, value-added tax was removed from construction materials to make home construction more affordable.

The Government in its manifesto, committed to allocating 50,000 house lots to Guyanese countrywide, with a target of 10,000 per year. Upon the passage of the Emergency Budget last September, the Government through its housing drive allocated 3,800 house lots. The Ministry was this year allocated $6 billion for infrastructural and utility works in new and existing housing areas.