Banque de L’Habitat (BDH) headquarters, in Beirut. (Credit: BDH)
BEIRUT — Banque de l’Habitat (BDH), Lebanon’s housing finance institution, announced Thursday it was lowering the annual interest rate on housing loans from 6% to 5.75%.
The decision, which took effect on July 1, comes after Banque du Liban approved exempting BDH from the annual 0.25% management fee usually charged by the central bank for managing the loan granted to the bank by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the institution said in a statement.
The line of credit was committed by the Arab Fund in 2025, allowing Banque de l’Habitat in June 2025 to raise the ceiling on its subsidized housing loans to $100,000, from $50,000 previously.
The loan’s original value amounted to 50 million Kuwaiti dinars, or roughly $165 million.
Accordingly, BDH is lowering interest rates applied specifically to housing loans tied to the Arab Fund loan.
The rate will also apply to previously granted loans financed from the same source, as of the due date of the final installment of the current contractual year.
As of July 2, BDH has granted a total of 1,059 loans worth $74 million, according to the latest figures shared with L’Orient-Le Jour. These include 980 loans for the purchase of apartments (worth $68.9 million), 49 construction loans (worth $4 million), and 30 renovation loans (worth $1 million).
Banque de l’Habitat relaunched its subsidized housing loan program in June 2024, when it reopened applications after more than five years of suspension. Disbursements began later that same month.
