Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The central bank of Bangladesh on Thursday increased the credit ceiling to BDT 12 million from BDT 10 million earlier to help boost the country’s real-estate sector, officials said.
“We’ve increased the credit ceiling because of price hike of construction materials for housing and real estate,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said the loan-margin ratio for fresh loans will be maintained at 70:30 in the event of house finance under consumer financing, meaning any borrower should invest 70 per cent of the cost to get the remaining 30 per cent from a bank as house financing.
The central bank issued a circular in this connection on Thursday and asked the chief executive of all 56 scheduled banks to flow the new ceiling for housing finance properly.
While inaugurating the REHAB Winter Fair 2014 on December 24, Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain said the government would announce an incentive package for boosting the real estate sector.
At the inaugural programme, Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) Alamgir Shamsul Alamin sought a government incentive for the real-estate sector as the sector saw a continued fall in apartment sales.
According to REHAB, 260 developers are now engaged in the country’s real-estate business apart from over 300 backward and forward linkage industries including cement, iron and steel, bricks, electrical equipment, tiles, fittings and ceramics.
BBN/SSR/AD-01Jan15-9:40 pm (BST)
