REHAB fair sweetens home loans

A customer chooses her best-suited apartment at the stall of Concord Real Estate & Building Products Ltd in REHAB Fair at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel yesterday. Organisers anticipate sales of Tk 1,000 crore from the show.Photo: STAR

A five-day real estate and housing show presents home loan seekers a chance to get finance for low processing fees, as some banks and other financial institutions have cut the charges by 0.5 to 1 percentage points.
Delta Brac Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DBH), BRAC Bank, National Housing Finance and Investment Ltd and IDLC Finance are the participating banks that slashed their interest rates to sanction home loans at the fair that began at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel yesterday.
¡°We have waived our loan processing fees as many people expect to receive discounts at such fairs,¡± said Golam Murshid, a manager of the Uttara branch of DBH, at his stall.
Murshid said financial institutions offer loans to all types of customers, including those who seek low-cost finance under the Bangladesh Bank (BB) refinance scheme.
Under the BB's housing loan refinance scheme, a person earning no more than Tk 50,000 a month will be offered finance to purchase either an apartment or build a home at an interest rate of 9 percent.
But the maximum size of the apartment must be 1,250 square feet.
¡°We will be able to sanction up to Tk 20 lakh to a person under the refinancing scheme,¡± he said. ¡°We can sanction up to 70 percent of the value of the apartment for home loan seekers who do not fall under the Bangladesh Bank refinance criteria.¡±
Sarder Akhter Hamed, vice president and head of retail banking of BRAC Bank, said the bank launched a loan product styled 'Apon Ghor' to minimise the hassles faced by customers.
¡°We will help clients find a suitable home according to their taste, budget and area preference. In addition, we will provide consultancy services to help them find developers, interior decorators and furniture and soft furnishing,¡± said the official.
BRAC Bank slashed all its processing fees by 0.5 percentage point.
Officials of BRAC Bank said they would extend loans to a private professional earning a minimum of Tk 25,000 a month.
Other participating financial institutions are HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank.