[2007-11-30]  5 Banks Join Mortgage Financing
FIVE commercial banks have joined a real estate company to finance acquisition of homes in Kisaasi, Ntinda, near Kampala.

Kensington Real Estate is developing 144 houses, bungalows and villas in a planned community in Ntinda.


Bhagu Suchak, the sales and marketing director, said they had pressurised the financial institutions to avail the funds at competitive rates.

dfcu Bank is lending to the project at 16%, Standard Chartered Bank 17%, Stanbic Bank 16%, Barclays Bank 16% and Housing Finance Company 16%.

The repayment period

"The unique and quality Kensington Luxury Heights development has been pre-approved by five banks which are offering 80% finance for up to 20 years with attractive interest rates.

"This makes home affordability easier," Sachek said.

He said many people including those from abroad had booked the houses.

The $25m (about sh43.2b) project whose construction will last 18 months has two to five bedroom homes.

The two-bedroom house costs $139,000, a three-bedroom bungalow $169,000, four-bedroom villa $224,000 and the five-bedroom villa $299,000.

The first lady Janet Museveni is expected to launch the project today.

There is a big housing shortage in Uganda with Kampala alone lacking 100,000 units.

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This is attributed to the high interest rates on mortgages and few players in the sector.

Parliament recently passed a motion allowing the Government to capitalise the Housing Finance Company of Uganda, with sh30b for mortgage financing.

The money will come from the proceeds of the sale of the Government pool houses.




Source: Copyright © 2007 New Vision.