Construction and Housing Development Bank will provide construction firms with better access to loans

The Ministry of Plan­ning and Finance through Myanmar Economic Bank will pro­vide a line of credit to local construction en­trepreneurs through the recently established Con­struction and Housing Development Bank.

The Union Minister for Planning and Finance, U Kyaw Win, made the announcement at UMF­CCI meeting on August 28 in response to recent concerns that the slowed growth in property and infrastructure develop­ments have arisen from firms inability to access loans.

“Most construction firms face financial ob­stacles posed by large up-front costs and a lack of accessible credit, thus slowing down their time­line for development,” U Kyaw Win said.

The Construction and Housing Development Bank was formed in 2013 under the Ministry of Construction to meet that expressed demand by of­fering easy to apply for loans with low annual in­terest rates.

“To stimulate the under­active industry, the bank will offer multi-billion Kyat loans to local devel­opers to help them de­velop and build at a more efficient rate. Because of crackdowns on the black market, the emergence of a housing bubble, and a more inexperienced bu­reaucracy, investments in Yangon property have slowed,” U Kyaw Win noted.

The Construction and Housing Development Bank has received K30 billion in assisting funds from the Myanma Eco­nomic Bank as well as an ODA loan from the Japan International Coopera­tion Agency (JICA).

An amendment to the condominium law which has been legislated since 2016 and is expected to pass in September will give non-Myanmar citi­zens the legal right to buy property. This is long-overdue and estimated to have an immensely posi­tive impact on the real es­tate and banking sectors, U Kyaw Win, said.

One hindrance to the market occurred after the NLD government came into power and led a crackdown on high-rise buildings in Yangon, which caused a slow-down in large-scale prop­erty development.

(Myanmar Business Today: https://www.mmbiztoday.com/articles/construction-bank-offers-developers-better-access-loans )

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