Low- and middle-income earners will have access to EGP 100 bn-worth of subsidized mortgages, courtesy of the Central Bank of Egypt. The new initiative will allow would-be homeowners to tap mortgage finance at a subsidized rate of 3% and will offer a 30-year repayment period, according to an Itthadiya statement. The statement made no further mention of eligibility criteria, such as an income ceiling, nor did it specify a maximum size per transaction or total value for the program. CBE Deputy Governor Gamal Negm told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa last night that the central bank is earmarking a total of EGP 100 bn for the new initiative (watch, runtime: 45:50).

Background: The new program comes after the CBE had launched last year its EGP 50 bn mortgage finance program for middle-income housing, which was a continuation of a previous initiative that ran from 2014 until January 2019. Under the previous initiative, those earning up to 40k a month were eligible for a preferential interest rate of 10% on their mortgages.