A newly installed set of solar panels on a house in Komatiyeh, Baabda district. (Credit: Mortada Rammal, special to L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Chairman and general manager of the state-owned Housing Bank Antoine Habib said Monday in a meeting with Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati that the civil servants strike has hindered the housing loans’ processes as applicants are unable to obtain and hence submit the required official documents along with their applications.
Here’s what we know:
• Habib said, quoting President Michel Aoun, that the Banque de L’Habitat’s website has received around 140,000 visitors so far in addition to thousands of applications but “some of them have not yet been completed,” noting that the Housing Loan “cannot accept an application unless it fulfills all the conditions, including the official documents.”
• Habib added that “the only obstacle currently facing loan applicants is their inability to include the legal identification papers in their applications due to the state employees’ strike.”
• The Housing Loan, which will fund real estate, home restoration and solar panel installations, was relaunched on June 20 after a three-year halt.
• Habib said Monday that there are a few sources financing the loan; “an internal source, from our own money, from loans that [Banque de L’Habitat] obtain[ed] from Banque du Liban or some Lebanese and Arab banks,” adding that the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development is one of the most important foreign funds financing the Housing Loan.
• The Lebanese state, represented by the Council for Development and Reconstruction, signed an agreement with the aforementioned Arab Fund on April 25, 2019 for a loan of “50 million Kuwaiti dinars, equivalent to 165 million US dollars.”
• Habib said that he hopes “to revive the loan agreement with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development in Kuwait” to facilitate the disbursement of the loan “that would enable [Banque de L’Habitat] to serve a wider segment of citizens, especially after the state decided to pay its dues towards the funds,” which was confirmed by Mikati during the meeting.
• Habib stressed that “all loans granted by the Housing Bank are directed exclusively to the Lebanese,” commenting that he found it crucial to clarify this matter, “as a good number of non-Lebanese individuals have tried to submit applications through the electronic platform.”