FMBN embarks on building models to reduce housing cost

The Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, has said that the bank has introduced innovations that will lower the cost of houses and make them affordable to off takers.

He said this last week Tuesday at the occasion of 2017 World Habitat Day held in Abuja.

Dangiwa stressed that the FMBN is constantly devising strategies to reduce the cost of houses funded by the bank through the introduction of simple building models that are demand driven, cheap and expandable.

According to him, other strategies adopted by the bank are the introduction of the new rent-to –own mortgage housing arrangement that allows NHF contributors to own houses through payment of monthly rent which excludes payment of personal equity as against what obtained under the conventional NHF loan.

He further stated that the low interest rate of 6% and tenor up to 30 years of FMBN loans made it the cheapest and lowest in the country, adding that the bank has given waiver on personal equity for funded estates priced N5m and below.

He said the bank is presently seeking for ministerial approval for downward review of personal equity of houses above N5m and N10m from the current 20% and 30% to 10% and 20% respectively.

He said, “FMBN has always advocated for the patronage of local building materials by professionals in the built environment as a means of lowering the cost of houses.”

He called on state governments to provide infrastructure to FMBN project sites in their states to reduce the cost of houses for their people and to also reduce the delays associated with issuance of Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).

Dangiwa also appealed to the National Assembly to hasten passage of the bills seeking for the amendment of the NHF Act and the Land Use Act before them.