00:00The government of Honduras has announced an increase in the interest rate for housing loans from 7% to 9
00:05%
00:06while simultaneously announcing the creation of a Ministry for Social Housing, a move that appears contradictory.
00:12Gerardo Torres Zelaya reports from Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
00:19In Honduras, the construction industry has suffered due to a general rise in the cost of all inputs.
00:25Building a house today is 30% more expensive than it was in January of this year,
00:30a situation compounded by an increase in mortgage interest rates, which have risen from 7% to 9%.
00:37The truth is that this is causing a real crisis for the construction industry.
00:43Well, in my case, as a contractor, that means there are going to be price increases.
00:50And everything related to construction businesses, hardware stores, everything is going up.
00:57So this means the construction sector is really going to decline.
01:01People who were suddenly thinking about it, who were suddenly struggling,
01:05and who suddenly knew what the interest rate was for building a home,
01:12now they'll have to figure out how to apply for a loan.
01:15They're going to run into this problem.
01:17The interest rates will be higher.
01:20Only four out of every ten families in Honduras own their own home.
01:24And for more than half of the population, income is insufficient to build one,
01:28making access to a loan through the banking system the only option.
01:35Just think, under the previous administration of Xiomara Castro, the rate was 7%.
01:41It was a little tougher back then, because the loan terms were 30 years, right?
01:46Now, of course, anyone looking for a home, because that's the big dilemma here in this country.
01:52Who owns a home?
01:53Or rather, who's lucky enough to own a home?
01:56Not just a home, but the land as well.
01:58The banks put up a lot of obstacles.
02:01There isn't really a program for the general public or for those of us who are wage earners.
02:06A program that helps us get a home easily.
02:09According to experts, the current government has recognized that the previous administration
02:13housing subsidy policies could help more families gain access to loans for building their own homes.
02:19However, the announcement that private banks have risen,
02:22their lending rates will complicate the reach of these housing policies.
02:29One option is to pay market interest rates, which are definitely going to go up.
02:37There's another mechanism left in place by the previous government
02:40that subsidized interest rates through Banprevise.
02:44It seems this mechanism has been reinstated after a year.
02:48Well, they saw that it works, and it looks like they're going to support public housing.
02:52There's even a loan program through CAF for that purpose.
02:56The government of Honduras has announced that it will support social housing,
03:01apparently aiming to do so without impacting the business of private banks
03:05or lowering costs within the domestic market,
03:09a goal that many consider an impossible mission.
03:12From Tegucigalpa, Honduras, for Telesur and English, Gerardo Torres-Elai.
