Al Oula—El Taamir for Mortgage Finance allocated EGP 350m for financing 250 clients to finance social and middle class housing with an interest rate ranges between 5% to 7% for low-income housing and 8% to 10.5% for middle-income housing, according to chairperson Hassan Hussein. Hussein said that this amount of money will be pumped during the first quarter (Q1) of 2018. Hussein added that during the coming days the company will finish all the procedures to activate the initiative of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to finance real estate units for low and middle-income housing. Hussein noted that Al Oula is the first company to activate the initiative of the CBE, adding that allowing the mortgage finance companies to participate in the initiative will contribute to success and reach the largest number of citizens in the shortest amount of time. Major financing companies are specialised in their field and have good experience in customer communication, while banks include many departments, and this earns companies an important comparative advantage. He explained that the company has previous experience in dealing with low and middle-income tranches, and they have already participated with a number of government banks in funding for units of the National Housing Project with about EGP 1.2bn. From her part, Maha Abdel Razik, general manager assistant, said that the company aims to end the current year by financing operations worth up to EGP 200m within the initiative of the CBE for real estate finance. Abdel Razik pointed out that the company will cooperate with developers and the private sector in terms of granting financing for the middle-income tranche. She added that the units, which cost between EGP 701,000 to EGP 950,000, are granted funding within the initiative at a rate of 10.5%, mostly available in the private sector projects and a few units of the middle-income housing project Dar Misr. Funding is given to the units from EGP 201,000 to EGP 700,000 at an interest rate of 8%. Since its establishment, Al Oula has financed more than 27,000 clients and recently penetrated several fields. It has set up start-up companies such as Al Oula for Leasing and Al Oula Real Estate Development Company, which increased the capital of the two companies and paid in full last month.
