To address the housing deficit in the country, HFC Mortgage and Savings Sierra Leone (SL) Limited has been working assiduously to create products that will address the current status quo in the market.
In a seminar for professionals involved in the development of Residential property on Saturday at the Bank Complex in Kingtom, Managing Director of HFC, Kofi Boateng said that Bank of Sierra Leone has granted HFC Mortgage and Savings SL Ltd the license to operate Mortgage Financing to provide liquidity to the housing market.
Making a statement on the role of Estate Developers Architect, Quantity Surveyors and Engineers in Mortgage Finance, Kofi Boateng added that HFC Mortgage and Savings SL Ltd is an initiative of NASSIT in its multi facet attack on demeaning and dehumanizing housing conditions some of us return to after the hard days work.
Kofi Boateng noted that, with the foresight of the Director General of NASSIT, Mr Edmond Koroma and his able lieutenants, “we in Sierra Leone have joined the elite class who use long term loans for the development of the housing industry and thereby giving hope to the working man, that he or she can be a land lord”.
The Managing Director pointed out that, HFC Mortgage and Savings is a deposit taking institution in addition Mortgage Financing through Construction Finance, Home Purchase, Financing for Home Completion and Home improvement.
He opined that in all these “we have a symbiotic relations as we rely on you (participants) to supply the houses, to demarcate and delineate parcels of land, to ensure the technical and structural conformity of the houses to quality and statutory standards and above all opinion and pressure group to lobby government to put housing on a priority list.
In his statement, Counterpart Managing Director Ahmed Bakarr Kamara said that “we have invited you here to this seminar to explain our mode of operation and to pick up your thoughts and ideas on how we can collaborate in helping the people of this country own their houses.
He disclosed that in June 2005, NASSIT signed a memorandum of understanding with the HFC Bank Ghana (GH) Ltd to provide technical assistance for the establishment of mortgage finance institution in Sierra Leone
Ahmed Bakarr Kamara noted that, a study was carried out by HFC Bank (GH) Ltd to assess the feasibility of establishing such an institution, stating that “the study concluded that it is feasible to set up a Mortgage Finance Institution in this country”.
The Managing Director further reaffirmed that, analysis so far reveal that there is a huge deficit in the provision of housing units, currently estimated at about 350,000 units with over 15,000 units needed annually in the urban and rural areas of the country.
Explaining why do we need housing finance, Kamara said that a well developed housing finance system will influence the supply side vis-à-vis the property developers to construct more housing units.
Introducing HFC Mortgage products, Yusufu Silla said that, they have HFC Construction Finance Mortgage (CFM) facility which is given to estate developers to construct residential property for sale, adding that the loan is given for a specified period, repayment is not contingent upon the sale of those properties.
The HFC Construction Stage Payment Mortgage (CSPM) facility is designed primarily to assist Real Estate Developers who are aiming to build homes for prospective HFC mortgagors and may require funds to enable them complete the homes.
Home Purchase Mortgage (HPM) he said is designed for individuals and corporate bodies to purchase residential properties for their own use or for rental.
Group Scheme Construction Stage Payment this product the Managing Director said is an option of the HPM designed to assist first time buyers who are unable to raise 20% deposit required to qualify for the HPM option.
Kamara maintained that the Home Completion Mortgage (HCM) facility is designed to assist applicants to complete construction of their houses.
The Home Improvement Mortgage (HIM) facility is designed to assist applicants to undertake renovation and extension works on their existing houses.
ADVERTISEMENT