The Mortgage Finance Authority has signed mortgage contracts valued at LE 241 million over the past six months, which, according to MFA chairman Osama Saleh, will enhance opportunities for achieving the authority's 2010 targets. Saleh said to a forum organized by the Egyptian Businessmen Association on Thursday that the MFA set a target of LE 4.5 billion for mortgage contracts by 2010. The value of mortgage loans approved by the end of October 2006 mounted to LE 571 million from only LE 330 million in April, or up LE 241 million. Saleh noted that the establishment of the Egyptian Liquidity Facility to undertake mortgage refinancing was a vital step toward invigorating the mortgage market in Egypt, adding that the facility would act as a market maker with its long-term cheap lending to banks and mortgage lenders. The facility's paid-in capital amounts to LE 200 million and an authorized capital of LE 1 billion. For his part, Fawzy Fatahallah, deputy chairman of the construction committee at the EBA, called for further lowering of interest rates to increase the market base of mortgage activities, especially among the middle-class brackets. Mortgage rates range from 8.75 percent to 12 percent, with the lower rate subsidized by the Mortgage Guarantee and Support Fund for low-income home-seekers.
