Egypt’s Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund and Crédit Agricole Egypt have signed a cooperation agreement to support low- and middle-income citizens.
The agreement comes as part of the initiative set up by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to provide mortgage finance.
The agreement was signed by Mai Abdel Hamid, CEO of the Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund, and Walie Lotfy, Deputy Managing Director of Crédit Agricole Egypt. It took place in the presence of senior representatives from both sides.
The agreement falls within Crédit Agricole Egypt’s strategy to serve the market, and increase customer satisfaction. This will take place through its various innovative banking products, and by capitalising on the CBE’s initiative to provide mortgage finance to low- and middle-income.
During the signing of the cooperation protocol, Abdel Hamid said, “The CBE’s initiative is successfully prompting more banks to promote social housing projects.”
She added, “The initiative started with four banks serving 800 clients per month and now 22 banks are offering mortgage products for 8,000-10,000 low- and middle-income clients per month.”
Abdel Hamid also said that Crédit Agricole Egypt demonstrates great professionalism in dealing with all files entrusted to the bank, and the fund is looking forward for further cooperation with the bank in the coming period.
For his part, Lotfy said, “This agreement comes in response to the CBE initiative to provide mortgage finance, which enables more citizens to buy suitable housing units with a repayment period up to 20 years at a low interest rate.”
This also falls in line with the presidential initiative to offer adequate housing for all Egyptians, he noted.
Accordingly, Crédit Agricole Egypt has been availing the home loan through its network and through its dedicated subsidiary, the Egyptian Housing Finance Company (EHFC), one of the oldest companies in the field of mortgage financing in Egypt.
“Mortgage loan is really considered as an investment enabling consumers to own a property, which is a great saving asset on the long run,” Lotfy said, “There are still tremendous opportunities in Egypt in this sector, especially since the CBE has facilitated the procedures to obtain mortgage loans in a way that achieves the best interest of the customer, the banks, and the real estate developers, evident by the construction of 450,000 housing units since the launch of the initiative.”
Commenting on the collaboration, Managing Director of Crédit Agricole Egypt Jean-Pierre Trinelle said, “We are developing the mortgage finance product, benefiting from the expertise of Crédit Agricole Group being the market leader in this field in France.”
“This agreement allows us to expand our services to different client segments in full adherence with Crédit Agricole’s ambition to serve actively the society and the local economy,” he added, “We are always keen to ensure that Crédit Agricole Egypt is part of the Central Bank of Egypt’s initiatives empowering customers on one hand and stimulating market dynamism and growth on the other.”
Under the middle-income mortgage finance scheme, the maximum monthly income for households has been set at EGP 14,000 and at EGP 10,000 for individuals. For low-income citizens, the monthly income threshold is EGP 4,500 for individuals and EGP 6,000 for households. The value of mortgage financing reached EGP 33bn at average financing of EGP 100,000 per unit.
