By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
The Government’s housing programme should start shortly, the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation’s (BMC) chairman said yesterday, after key conditions to unlock construction financing were met.
Alex Storr said stipulations within the housing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the BMC, National Insurance Board, Ministry of Environment and Housing and Ministry of Finance had been fulfilled.
“The MOU that we signed with NIB had stipulations in it. There were several things that had to be done before the funding was passed,” Mr Storr said.
“This includes the hiring of a financial adviser, a project manager. We have sent those out to tender, received those tenders and I think those persons have been selected. Now that they are in place we can now move forward with the funding and start building. I look for building to commence shortly.”
Over 100 homes are expected to be constructed in the first phase.
“We thought we would have started by now,” Mr Storr added. “There were things that the agreement said we had to have in place before we could start building. Most of those things are in place so we hope to commence shortly.”
Mr Storr said up to 1,000 persons had applied for housing on the Ministry of Housing’s website alone.
The MOU provides for $60 million to be provided for the housing programme. The initial tranche that is governed by the MOU, some $10 million, is to be drawn down over a period of 12 months in quarterly equal installments.
It is to be repaid through securitisation of BMC’s mortgage portfolio, with the funds to be lent through NIB to BMC, and the latter providing it for the purpose of the housing programme.
Mr Storr said the BMC’s loan delinquency rate is currently around 33.5 per cent, although the number was trending downward.
“It has decreased a little bit. I think that we have been trending down, going in the right direction at the right pace,” he added. “We have been reaching out to all of our customers who have been facing arrears to come in and discuss their problems. We have also made a list of our customers who are in arrears and sent it to the appeals panel of the Mortgage Relief Plan.”
Mr Storr added: “We have even been introducing programmes and making the call out to the general public on coming in and helping them bring their mortgages up to date.
“What we have seen is that these last few months, there is generally a spike, but we have been instituting our plans and making the call out to the public to try and keep these under control.
“We face the same challenges as any other financial institution. We have persons coming in every day looking for mortgages. We not only have the Government programme that we fund but we fund private loans as well.”
Mr Storr said that while some 1,100 BMC customers were in arrears on theit mortgages, 2,000-plus customers were current with their payments.
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