CEO of Mortgage Finance Fund (MFF) Mai Abdel Hamid has unveiled that a total of 707,000 social housing units are being finalized to accommodate 226,000 citizens, which will be complemented with 761,000 service projects, Invest-Gate reports.

Service projects include 125 schools, 111 nurseries, 201 commercial spaces, 85 medical centers, 80 sports fields and centers, 107 mosques and churches, and 52 public service buildings, Abdel Hamid said in a ministerial statement on April 14.

MFF’s CEO stressed that the volume of financing within the state’s Mortgage Finance Initiative has so far reached EGP 22 bn, with an average of EGP 95,000 per beneficiary. In addition, EGP 3.7 bn were provided in a form of financial support to aid those in need.

According to Abdel Hamid, 51% of units beneficiaries are operating in the private sector, while 36% and 13% are either working in the public sector or are self-employed, respectively.

She pointed out that there is an explicit diversity in the social housing project’s beneficiaries, which emphasizes the success of the project in targeting the low-income segment. The proportion of social housing recipients belonging to the age group of 21-30 years stands at 20%, as for those aged between 31 and 40 years old mark 52%, while beneficiaries ranging from 41 to 50 years account for 25%, and those over 50 years old reach 3%. 

On February 21, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has put in place new policies and measures on the bank’s mortgage finance initiative and its subsequent amendments, limiting it to financing low-income citizens only.

The initiative’s new measures include offering mortgage finance to those who meet the CBE conditions via the banks’ resources at interest rates of 5-7% for the low-income segments for a maximum period of 20 years without providing treasury bills as a guarantee, according to an earlier statement.