82% Rise in Q1 Housing Loans
EghtesadOnline: Bank Maskan, the agent bank of Iran’s housing sector, has released its latest performance report showing that the number of loans it allocated to applicants during the first quarter of the current fiscal year that ended on June 21 increased by 82.2% compared with the similar period of last year.
According to the report published on its official news portal HIBNA, the bank handed out 85,140 counts of a variety of loans, considerably higher compared to the 46,718 loans extended in the first quarter of the last Iranian year.
These loans include civil participation facilities, Qarzol-Hassaneh (interest-free) marriage loans and loans for home construction, purchase and renovation, among others.
During the Q1 of the fiscal 2017-18, Bank Maskan’s branches throughout the country doled out 5,266 civil participation loans for boosting the construction of residential units. The figure went up to 7,258 by the end of this year’s Q1, indicating a 37.9% hike, Financial Tribune reported.
The number of facilities aimed at easing home purchases totaled 24,586 in last year’s Q1, but reached 38,759 to show a 57.6% rise.
In the case of home renovation facilities, Bank Maskan provided loans to 25,867 applicants during this period, which was more than double the 12,918 loans handed out last year.
Interest-free loans for applicants seeking to get married, in addition to loans aimed at completing the construction of homes, were allocated to 4,248 applicants in the last spring. That was up by 80.2%, as only 2,358 loans had been doled out in the previous spring.
The highest growth in Bank Maskan’s lending categories went to a variety of interest-free loans handed out for other purposes. These facilities totaled 227 counts last year, whereas 5,117 counts were allocated during the first three months of the current year.
Islamic Murabaha and other financing tools also increased by 86.6% and 173.1% respectively during the first quarter of the current year in comparison with last year’s corresponding quarter.
Bank Maskan did not reveal the value of these loans.
Maskan’s Savings Funds Grow
The bank also reviewed a portion of the latest economic data released by the Central Bank of Iran on Friday, which indicate a rise in resources handled by its savings funds.
CBI data pertaining to the end of the previous fiscal year in March 2018 showed that the total value of resources across all of Bank Maskan’s savings funds reached 84 trillion rials ($1.94 billion), whereas the same number stood at 55 trillion rials ($1.27 billion) at the end of the fiscal 2016-17. That shows a notable 51% increase.
To put the number into perspective, the bank points out that by the end of last fiscal year (March 20, 2018), the total value of deposits made with the non-government sector exceeded 1.48 quadrillion rials ($34.2 billion) with a 22.4% year-on-year increase. On the other hand, the total volume of interest-free deposits made with banks reached 801 trillion rials ($18.51 billion) to showcase an annual rise of 33%.
Therefore, Bank Maskan’s savings funds managed to register a notable hike in absorbed deposits, which the lender believes indicates a rise in popular tendency toward opening Housing Savings Accounts.