8 December 2009
Egypt’s immature mortgage market will fail to meet its growth targets in the short-term due to the fact that the Egypt property market has slowed considerably in the past year or so, in light of the global economic turmoil, says one industry expert.
The introduction of mortgages has helped realise more people’s dreams of owning a home in Egypt. The country has already issued around £415m worth of mortgages, but the this capital still represents under 1% of Egypt’s GDP, according to Iman Ismail, managing director of Egyptian Mortgage Refinance Company (EMRC).
In an interview with Reuters, Ismail, said: “We're looking for a huge increase [in mortgage lending]. In order to do that all the pieces need to fall together.”
EMRC was set-up in 2006 to provide mortgage lenders with the necessary finance to issue loans to people buying Egyptian real estate. However, despite general expectations that the sector would take-off, lending has remained relatively low.
The global financial calamity bought the Egypt property market to a standstill, with very few home loan applications approved in Q4 2008, which has made it unlikely that the sector will meet its mortgage targets this year.
“This [slow mortgage lending towards the end of last year] affects our growth in 2009, obviously because we've got a whole quarter [Q4 2008] that was basically lost,” Ismail added.
Egyptian housing transactions and mortgage applications are now increasing, once more.
See Also: Marc Da-Silva (269), Egypt (6), Mortgage (25)
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