Luanda, Angola, 12 May – The interest rates on home loans applied by Angola’s retail banks are very high, at over 30 percent, the director of the National Housing Institute said Tuesday in Luanda.

Criticising the activities of the real estate financiers, Eugénio Correia also said that current interest rates were, “speculative and impracticable in any part of the world.”

Correia said that the Housing Fund was due to start operating this year as the diploma for its constitution was ready and the Ministry for Urbanism and Construction was preparing the regulations for access to the fund.

According to Correia, the Ministry for Urbanism and Construction is receiving contribution from universities and associations about interest rates and repayment periods for loans, which will be included in the fund’s regulations.

Correia explained that the Housing Fund aimed to minimise the social housing deficit in Angola and that its main target was the section of the population that had no resources to buy the home they want. (macauhub)