Housing Authority Harps On Early Mortgage Plans

The Rivers State Housing and Property Development Authority (RSHPDA) has called on the general public, particularly those in the public service to ensure that they start the processes of Mortgage early enough, if they want to own their own houses before retirement.

RSHPDA also decried a situation where workers delay such mortgage arrangements close to the period when they want to go on retirement, pointing out that such situation makes it difficult for both the intending house owner and the mortgage institution.

The general manager of the authority, Architect I.S. Cookey-Gam, said this while speaking in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt.

He said that one major problem the people have, especially in Rivers State, is that many of them do not start the mortgage arrangement on time, but only to show interest when they have few years on their jobs.

According to the RSHPDA General Manager, “The major issue in mortgage is the number of years. The higher the years, the lower the mortgage burden and vice-verser, but the orientation of our people has affected their thinking. The mortgage system has gone through some improvement”.

He said also “By law, no mortgage institution is supposed to deduct more than 30 percent of beneficiary’s monthly salary on mortgage loan repayment. The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) is a regulatory agency in Nigeria, and they use the primary mortgage institutions (PMIS) to give mortgages of people”.

Architect CookeyGam further explained that the primary objective of the RSHPDA is to make sure that houses are available to the people, adding that they are very much committed to providing houses for any body that approached their office for such issue, if the person is able to pay the initial deposit of a given percentage of the total cost of the property, which will propel them to start the development, while other necessary documents be on processing with the primary mortgage institution.

According to him, an initial 10 percent deposit is require for a property of less than N5 million and 20 percent of the total cost, required for a property of about N10 million, while 30 percent initial deposit is also required for a property worth N15 million, and urged the public to limit themselves to those that their income could accommodate, to make things easier.

The general manager also said that his office could also make arrangement of mortgage for those in the public service whose remaining service years can meet up with the repayment scheduled, and who are also able to pay the initial deposit of the total cost of the property.

He said that when such deposit is made to them, that they will develop and handover the house keys to the beneficiary, who will later get the title deeds for ownership of the property when payment is completed.

Corlins Walter