Mortgages still in demand

Demand for mortgages in Barbados remains “robust” says Vice-president of Investment Management Services Asset Management at Sagicor Dexter Moe.

He expects the trend to continue because of Barbadians’ desire to own their own homes. He said that Sagicor is providing financing solutions for low, middle and high-income earners, offering rates from as low as 3.25 per cent for home purchase, construction and to switch mortgages in addition to land loans at just under five per cent for those seeking to own a piece of the rock.

His comments were made to members of the media on Saturday at Sagicor’s ‘Home Sweet Home’ Mortgage Fair on the grounds of its Wildey offices, where over 20 exhibitors from within the mortgage industry showcased their offerings to the constant stream of interested members of the public.

Commending the company for its offerings across the economic brackets, Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland advised other financial institutions to do the same, stressing the need for low-income earners to be able to own homes.

“Our challenge as a government is not within the upper-income bracket as those persons can go to the bank and get their financing. Our challenge is within the middle to the low-income category, so we are asking the banks and lending institutions to be a bit more lenient with respect to persons coming to you,” he stated, before stressing that he was not asking financial institutions “to give away your money to persons who can’t pay for the mortgages”.

Sutherland also said that the backlog of applicants at the National Housing Corporation waiting on homes stood at 18 000, of which 8,000 were civil servants.

“When you took out those persons who are deceased, some who had housing and double applicants, we found 18,000 applicants who applied for houses over 10 years ago, 20 years ago. Of those applicants, 8 000 were civil servants including persons in state-owned enterprises and in the general public service. A lot of them were nurses, policemen and women and general workers,” he added.

Several workshops were also held during the fair including one on Designing & Building for Hurricane Resilience.

Addressing students from the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology and the Barbados Community College, who were in attendance, Moe stated “We believe it is important for architecture students to learn how to design and build for resilience.

“With climate change, natural disasters, and other crises becoming more frequent and severe, it is essential that our buildings and infrastructure are designed to withstand these challenges and remain operational in their aftermath,” he added. (JB)