Her Excellency Amna bint Ahmed Al Rumaihi, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, affirmed her keenness to continue efforts to formulate innovative housing solutions that ensure accelerating the pace of achievement by strengthening partnership with the private sector to play a key role in providing housing services to citizens, in a way that supports the objectives of the comprehensive development process led by His Majesty. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of the Great Country, may God protect him, and the continuous follow-up of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, may God protect him, in line with Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030 and the goals of sustainable development.
This came during a press conference held by Her Excellency Mrs. Amna bint Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, and Dr. Khalid Abdullah, Director General of Eskan Bank, to announce the new housing finance program approved by the Council of Ministers headed by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince The Prime Minister, may God protect him today.
Al-Rumaihi said that the launch of the new housing finance program comes in implementation of the directives of His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister, may God protect him, to increase the beneficiaries of the "Mazaya" program by an additional 500 beneficiaries this year, and to offer more financing options for housing services.
She stated that the types and privileges of financing services have been expanded to be added to the previous financing, namely purchase financing, construction financing, restoration financing, and the "Mazaya" program that has been expanded according to the new financing programs, announcing the addition of the "Tas'heel" program, which provides 3 new financing options, These are the "real estate facility", "the Oud home facilitation", and "the cooperation facilitation", in addition to the financing service provided by the "Mazaya" program in partnership with banks and commercial banks, which was expanded through the introduction of the Mazaya program (the new category) in addition to The current Mazaya program, and the regular housing services will continue to be provided through the ownership of housing units and the service of residential vouchers.
Regarding the new privileges that the new programs will provide, the minister stated that they mainly focus on raising the minimum finance limit from 19,000 dinars to 40,000 dinars, and raising the maximum finance limit from 60,000 dinars to 70,000 BD, noting that raising the ceilings for housing finances. It will be a direct government support from the government to the citizen, and it will not increase the value of the monthly premium for each service, which is set at 25% of the value of the citizen’s salary. As for the most prominent privileges of the Mazaya program (the newly created category), the maximum age of the beneficiaries of this option will be raised to 40 years.
Al-Rumaihi pointed out that all necessary measures have been taken to start receiving housing applications for financing as of today, Monday, August 1, 2022, by submitting the services of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning available on the national portal bahrain.bh, stressing that it is in the interest of the ministry to reduce housing applications on the list. Wait, those wishing to take advantage of these new financing options will be given priority.
She noted that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning has made great strides through joint initiatives between it and the Housing Bank with real estate development companies and banking institutions in the Kingdom of Bahrain over the past years, which have proven their feasibility, as the private sector showed very great efficiency in strengthening the system of providing housing services to citizens, which The outcome of the partnership has so far resulted in the provision of many housing services to citizens through initiatives that vary between the financing of the “Mazaya” program and the units of the Deerat Al-Oyoun project, as well as the projects provided by the Housing Bank to the beneficiaries of the Ministry’s financing services, such as the projects of Danat Al-Madina, Al-Seef, Al-Riffa and Al-Baraka.
She added that these positive results encouraged further expansion with the private sector to play a greater role during the next stage in providing housing services to citizens. The result of extensive studies, and the aim of this cooperation is to provide easy, immediate and diversified financing services to citizens whose applications are on the waiting list at the Ministry, as well as those applying for recent housing applications, by accelerating the fulfillment of housing services.
In a related context, Al-Rumaihi spoke about the program of rights to develop government lands and rehabilitate real estate development companies, which contributed to accelerating the pace of providing various housing services during the last period, stressing that this program is on the right track, as it approached its first experiences represented in the project of implementing 132 housing units. For completion, she noted that the program will provide thousands of housing units over 10 years, noting that the projects provided by the Land Development Rights Program are all directed to categories of citizens who benefit from the financing services provided by the Ministry and the Housing Bank, through which we seek to increase the supply of housing units. Diversifying the options for citizens, at prices that match the granted funds.
turn; Dr. Khaled Abdullah, Director General of the Housing Bank, confirmed that the new housing finance program offers new options that represent affordable housing solutions, which come in implementation of the directives of His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister, may God protect him, as it will contribute to expanding the base of beneficiaries of financing services, and reducing the lists of beneficiaries of the financing services. Waiting by encouraging citizens with housing requests to choose one of the new financing services that save time and waiting.
He explained that the types of financing have been increased, some of which are provided by the Housing Bank directly, while others are provided by banks and commercial banks with government support, pointing to the conditions for benefiting from the “Tas’heel” program, which is that the applicant is a family head, a Bahraini national, and that his age ranges from Between 21 and 50 years, and neither the head of the family nor one of his family members benefited from a housing service provided by the government or any other party, and the applicant did not own a real estate, in addition to the family residency in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the monthly income ranged between 320 and 1200 dinars The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning may exclude the minimum income requirement for special circumstances of the applicant, as well as the ownership of vacant land in the case of financing construction, with the exception of financing for construction within the main property.
Regarding the special provisions of the “Tas’heel” service, the General Manager of the Housing Bank confirmed that it is represented in: Excluding the upper limit of qualified income, where the condition of the upper limit of eligible income is excluded for holders of existing applications for vouchers and housing units for which no ceiling for monthly income has been set, and submitting a joint application, where it is permissible to That the husband and wife submit a joint application to benefit from one of the types of financing, with the exception of the upper limit of the eligible age, and the condition of the upper limit of the eligible age for the holders of existing applications for plots and housing units.
He also added that the value of the financing is determined according to the applicant's monthly income, with a minimum of 40 thousand dinars, and a maximum of 70 thousand dinars, and that the transfer does not affect the seniority of the application, and the applicant can withdraw the transfer before the decision to allocate the financing.
As for the financing guarantees, the ownership of the real estate or the common shares is transferred to the bank or the real estate or the common shares is mortgaged to the bank. Decisions to allocate the financing are issued according to the seniority of the basic request, and based on the budget allocated for financing.
With regard to the "real estate facility", the General Manager of the Housing Bank said that it includes 5 financing purposes, which are: buying and building land, buying a building and adding to it, buying a land, buying a house, and building a house, indicating that in order to benefit from these two services, one must buy The beneficiary of the land or building is part of the value of the financing and then builds with the rest of its value, and there are no restrictions on the duration of building the land, and the property is mortgaged in favor of the Housing Bank to guarantee the value of the financing.
With regard to “facilitating the Oud House”, the General Manager of the Housing Bank added that it meets the purposes of financing in the purchase of a house, the purchase of land, the purchase and construction of land, the construction of a house, the addition to an existing building, the purchase and addition of a building, provided that the house is part of a real estate owned by a relative. Husband or wife, and the property owner acknowledges approving ownership and/or building in the property or doing addition work in it, and legal contracts are signed between the owner and the beneficiary to preserve rights.
And he added: As for the “cooperation facilitation”, the purposes of the financing were determined as follows: buying a house, buying a land, buying and building a land, building a house, buying a building and adding to it, where everyone’s approval must be obtained to add a new applicant within the group, and the financing is disbursed to the contractor. In the case of construction, the financing is disbursed to the seller in the event of purchase.
Regarding the housing finance ceilings, the Director General of the Housing Bank indicated that the maximum limit for housing finance has been raised from 60,000 to 70,000 Bahraini dinars, and the increase in the value of the finance is based on the value of the income, and the beneficiary pays the entire value of the finance by a monthly installment representing 25% of his income .
He added that the minimum value of housing finance has been increased from 19 thousand to 40 thousand Bahraini dinars, and the financing service is available for citizens with low incomes whose income does not qualify them to obtain 40 thousand dinars, and the beneficiary will pay the value of the specified financing based on his income only according to a monthly installment representing 25% of the Income, the beneficiary does not pay the amount due to the increase in the minimum, as it is considered as a subsidy from the government.
As for the advantages of voluntarily raising the maximum ceiling for housing finance, the Director General of the Housing Bank said that it is possible to increase the amount of financing by voluntarily increasing the percentage of income deduction, provided that the amount of financing does not exceed a maximum of 70 thousand dinars, and that raising the value of the financing is subject to the desire and choice of the beneficiary. and his financial ability, and the beneficiary pays the entire value of the financing according to a monthly installment of a maximum of 35% of his income
With regard to the "Mazaya" program, the General Manager of the Housing Bank noted that the option to buy an existing home with the same financing value of 81 thousand Bahraini dinars will be preserved, and that the value of the house does not exceed 120 thousand Bahraini dinars, and obtaining financing will be from a commercial bank with government support, and the age is Those eligible to benefit from this option are between 21 and 35 years old, and that the monthly income ranges between 600 to 1200 dinars, and the beneficiary pays 25% of his monthly income as a financing installment, and the government bears paying the difference between the premium and 25% of the beneficiary’s income, and the financial support decreases in proportion to the Increase your monthly income periodically.
He mentioned that the "Mazaya" program was expanded by adding other options in the newly created category, so that beneficiaries can buy a land, buy a house, build a house, buy and build a land, and the payment rate is from 25% to 30% of income according to age, in addition to The age of use has been raised to 40 years. Indicating that the ceiling of the financing value according to age and the percentage of deduction
