Ministry appears at feasibility of transferring inexpensive loans programme to Oman Housing Bank

“One of the three programmes – Affordable Housing Loan Program – is being studied to see if it will be feasible to transfer the programme to Oman Housing Bank. This move is part of the privatisation initiative of the government.”

Mahrouqi mentioned that the housing loan programme began in 1991 for households with a month-to-month revenue ranging among RO301 and RO600. The worth of the housing loan is RO30,000 repayable in month-to-month installments not exceeding 20 per cent of the total revenue. From the year 1991 till 2015, some eight,672 households benefitted from this programme at a total price of RO164,002,846.

Explaining the other two programmes, namely the Social Housing Program and the Housing Assistance Program, Mahrouqi mentioned that the social housing programme started in 1973 with the aim to establish integrated residential communities with all solutions to limit internal migration from the countryside to the city.

Housing units had been constructed according to the customs and traditions of every area. These had been low-price housing units, and in terms of style, future horizontal and vertical expansion was taken into consideration, taking care of the improve in family members members. Primarily, this programme was aimed at households whose month-to-month revenue did not exceed RO400. From 1973-2015, some 14,999 housing units had been constructed at a total price of RO340,614,801.

As for the Housing Assistance Program, Mahrouqi mentioned it targets social safety households and households with a month-to-month revenue up to RO300. The price of housing help ranges among RO20,000 and RO25,000, and the quantity might exceed primarily based on the circumstances of the website and the quantity of family members members.

The housing help is a grant from the state to the citizen and it is not recovered. The total quantity of housing units that have been implemented in this programme from 1981-2015 stood at 24,188 at a total price of RO421,259,562.

Information Source: Muscat Daily