Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented the government-initiated novelties in mortgage lending. The changes apply many provisions in the 'Available Housing for Young Families' program.
Pashinyan said that before that the aggregate age of applicant couples must not be higher than 65 years, while now this benchmark is raised to 70 years.
He noted that the annual interest rate will be set at 7.5% for those purchasing apartments in Yerevan and 5.5% for those who acquire houses in the country’s provinces.
"Along with that, I want to stress that during our discussions over the matter, Arthur Javadyan, the head of the Central Bank of Armenia, said that some banks today are ready to provide loans at lower interest rates," Pashinyan said in a live broadcast on his Facebook page.
The PM also said that the maximum sum of the loan for purchasing apartments at the primary market will amount to AMD 30 million, and at the secondary market AMD 25 million.
The maximum repayment term for will be set at 20 years for primary market, and 30 years for the secondary market.
Pashinyan added in this connection that those people who purchase apartments at the primary market can repay their loans from income tax. This means that high-paid people will have almost interest-free loans for 30 years.
The prime minister said that before that, borrowers had to pay 30% of the house cost beforehand, while now the first payment will be reduced to 10%, if they have another immovable property as guarantee.
"There is also another solution to the first payment problem – today this payment can be replaced with insurance of the apartment that are being sold equal to at least 20% of the house cost," ARKA cited him as saying.
