HFC Bank Ghana Limited, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with real estate giants, Regimanuel Gray Limited to provide financing for their developed houses and new serviced plots to interested customers.

The signing ceremony took place at the Head office of HFC Bank Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago in Accra, and was attended by Managing Director of the bank including its senior executives and the senior executives of Regimanuel Gray Ltd led by Vice Chairman of the company, Regina Botchway.

According to HFC Bank, this unique arrangement allows prospective home owners to design and build their dream homes on plots serviced by world class infrastructure delivered by Regimanuel Gray Ltd located at Katamanso on the Accra – Oyibi road on a land size of over 1,300 acres.

Speaking to the B&FT at the signing ceremony, the Managing Director of HFC Bank Ghana Limited, Anthony Jordan said, the signing of the MoU was just to re-affirm HFC’s relationship with Regimanuel to provide mortgage financing for both entities customer who are in need of developed houses and serviced plots.

This he said, was to help the country to reduce the huge housing deficit.

“Available statistics indicate that, Ghana has a housing deficit of about 1.8 million with an annual housing demand of approximately 100,000 units. However, the real estate companies are providing only about 40,000 housing units annually. This statistic clearly shows that we have a lot more to do as key stakeholders in the housing finance.

In that regard, we are happy to say that, we have improved our mortgage procedures to reflect current market trends but also signing this MoU with Regimanuel to make it easy for especially middle-income earners to own a home,” he stated.

Mr. Jordan further stated that, “mortgage loan is not only available at the Head Office or at a department but, available at all our 44 HFC branches in Ghana. In addition, we have significantly reduced our mortgage rates; our Cedi denominated mortgage interest rate now is 24% and the Dollar denominated rate is 11.5%. This, I dare say, make HFC Mortgage offers the cheapest on the market. We have also invested in mortgage capacity training of our staff and improved on our processes.”

Under the terms of the collaboration, HFC Bank shall offer a special land purchase mortgage to prospective buyers of these serviced plots which shall finance 100% of the cost of the land and offer a repayment schedule of up to 7 years at an interest rate which is said to be one of the lowest within the mortgage financing industry.

The Bank also is prepared to provide construction loans for the homes to be built, once the land is acquired.

Signing on behalf of Regimanuel Gray Ltd., Mrs. Regina Botchway, Vice-Chairman of the company reiterated that, the collaboration is aimed at helping the government to close the huge housing deficit gap and allow prospective Land owners to build to suit their taste.

“We at Regimanuel Gray Ltd are proud to have been one of the forbearers to develop the vision and leadership of home ownership and acquisition. Collaborating with HFC Bank is something that dates back to 1993 and today I can say that HFC is one of the best partners in the market to work with to help push the agenda of providing service plots.”