Concord Times
(Freetown)
Rachel Horner
7 October 2008
Mortgage finance institution, HFC mortgage and saving Sierra Leone limited Saturday held a seminar for professionals involved in the development of residential property.
The seminar, which was themed: "The role of estate developers architect, quantity surveyor and engineers in mortgage finance" was held at the Bank of Sierra Leone complex, Kingtom in Freetown.
HFC's counterpart managing director Ahmed Bakarr said national social security and insurance trust, NASSIT promoted the establishment of the mortgage company.
Bakarr said: "For a long time homeowners have been financing the constructions of their houses either by own funds or private short terms loans."
He said they needed to develop a modern deliverable housing financing system that would be suitable and adaptable to the public.
Bakarr said there was no provision for home mortgage finance in the country in terms of institution or legislation.
He said housing finance would influence the supply side vis-à-vis the property developers to construct more housing units adding that the company was working with ministry of finance to sponsor the drafting of the home mortgage finance bill 2008.
Yusufi Silla introduced HFC mortgage products said they have been working assiduously to create products that would address the current status quo.
He said the products include the HFC construction finances mortgage, construction stage payment mortgage, home completion mortgage, home improvement mortgage and buy land and build own home.
Silla encouraged estate developers to train their staffs on those products so that they could get the maximum benefit from their use.
Managing Director of HFC mortgage and savings Kofi Agyenim Boateng said he was excited that the bank of Sierra Leone has granted them the licensing to operate mortgage financing to provide liquidity to the housing market.
He said mortgage is a contract charging immovable property as security for the due repayment of debt and the interest accruing thereon.
Boateng called on the public to desist from constructing shoddy construction.
"We have to use our technical expertise, professional standards and moral duties to ensure that structures we put up as houses in communities will take the country beyond," he said.
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