BEIRUT, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Finance Ministry has agreed to subsidize part of the interest rate on housing loans offered by Lebanon's Public Corporation for Housing (PCH), PCH's General Manager Rony Lahoud announced Monday.
"This move is awaiting the cabinet formation because the parliament may not be able to discuss the draft law that will be submitted for this purpose in the absence of a government," Lahoud said, quoted by Elnashra, an independent online newspaper.
The PCH announced on July 8 that no applications for housing loans will be accepted from July 9.
The Central Bank of Lebanon usually funds the housing loans though PCH and the housing bank. It provided commercial banks with a fund worth 500 million U.S. dollars in February, allocated for subsidized housing loans that would be used by Lebanese citizens to buy apartments.
The fund, however, was drained within a month.
The commercial banks therefore are offering housing loans with an interest rate of around 6 to 7 percent compared to 3 percent for subsidized loans, making people hesitate to purchase.
As a result, some political parties voiced their concerns about this new crisis, emphasizing the need to find quick solutions to this issue.
