Harambee Sacco first to tap State-backed house loans

Guests follow proceedings during the launch of the Harambee Sacco mortgage scheme at Serena Hotel in Nairobi on September 28.     
 

Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • The two loans are pegged at eight percent interest rate for the 10-year mortgages and at nine percent for over 10 years and up to 25 year mortgages.
  • Harambee Sacco chairman Macloud Malonza said they will cash in on their rich land bank to promote their two products where each beneficiary will be expected to pay a 10 percent deposit for a mortgage starting at Sh500,000 to a maximum of Sh4 million.
  • KMRC will lend to banks and financial co-operatives at an annual interest of five percent, enabling them to write home loans at between seven to nine percent-lower than average market rate of 11.94 percent or 42 percent cheaper.
  • Shelter Afrique and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private financing arm, became the newest shareholders of KMRC.

Harambee Sacco is to offer cheap housing loans of up to Sh4 million on the back of funds from the State-owned Kenya Mortgage Re-finance Company (KMRC).

This is after KMRC licensed the sacco’s two mortgage products, Harambee Home loan that enables its members to purchase readily built houses and Harambee Jenga loan, where borrowers are facilitated to build a house on their own parcels of land under the sacco’s supervision.

The two loans are pegged at eight percent interest rate for the 10-year mortgages and at nine percent for over 10 years and up to 25 year mortgages.

KMRC chief executive Johnson Oltetia said Harambee Sacco which contributed Sh25 million for a stake in KMRC, together with 10 others were legible for the mortgage re-finance facility owing to their shareholding.

“We have a ready Sh4.5 billion mortgage portfolio that our shareholders can tap into for onward lending to Kenyans and a further Sh25 billion loan facility from the World Bank that we can readily access. Africa Development Bank has committed Sh10 billion,” he said.

Harambee Sacco chairman Macloud Malonza said they will cash in on their rich land bank to promote their two products where each beneficiary will be expected to pay a 10 percent deposit for a mortgage starting at Sh500,000 to a maximum of Sh4 million.

Five percent

Each mortgage is pegged at member’s age until retirement at 60 years or 25 years’ repayment period where Jenga loans will be based on a draw-down basis based on stage by stage arrangement during construction

This means individuals who qualify for the subsidised loans or those earning less than Sh150,000, will have to top up their loans with commercial credit should they seek a home above the Sh4 million.

KMRC will lend to banks and financial co-operatives at an annual interest of five percent, enabling them to write home loans at between seven to nine percent-lower than average market rate of 11.94 percent or 42 percent cheaper.

Mr Oltetia said buyers seeking loans for houses valued above Sh4 million, will negotiate for top-up loans with participating lenders.  The additional funding will be at market rates.

The government owns a 25 percent stake in KMRC, with the rest of the shares held by banks, saccos and microfinance institutions.

Shelter Afrique and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private financing arm, became the newest shareholders of KMRC.

Gone slow

Shelter Afrique paid Sh200 million for its shares.

The KMRC funding is expected to ease home ownership. Mortgage firms have long shied away from writing housing loans, mainly due to a lack of long-term deposits.

The KMRC funding is expected to drive the number of mortgage accounts to an estimated 60,000 by 2022. 

Commercial banks had only 26,504 mortgage accounts in their books worth Sh224.8 billion as at the end of 2018, according to CBK data.

Banks have gone slow on providing home loans due to a spike in defaults which hit Sh38 billion in 2018.