BML announces new housing loans, financing

Bank of Maldives (BML) has introduced two new home loan schemes.

The country’s national bank in a statement issued on Monday, revealed that the two newly introduced home loan products are the “Home Build Loan” and the “Home Equity Loan”.

The new schemes were introduced in a bid to cater to the growing needs of customers for construction and renovation of their homes.

Designed to allow individuals to borrow up to MVR one million without any additional security, the new Home Build Loan has a repayment period of over 15 years.

It is ideal for renovation projects or larger home construction projects nationwide.

The newly introduced Home Equity Loan is for existing Home Loan and Financing customers and enables customers to take loans up to the repaid amount, or the usable equity of the primary loan.

Offered for borrowings of more than MVR 50,000, the Home Equity Loan has a repayment period of 20 years.

BML’s Director of Retail and SME Banking Moosa Nimal stated that these schemes are designed to easily pave access to finance for their customers nationwide.

Highlighting that the new Home Build Loan does not require any additional security, Nimal stated that it will allow customers to build or renovate homes at the most competitive market rates.

Further, he stated that the Home Equity Loan will offer existing home financing customers to access usable equity available on their property, at a low rate of just 10 percent.

BML revealed that Home Build Financing and Home Equity Financing are also available for their BML Islamic customers.

Key features of the Home Build Loan include having an interest rate of nine percent per annum as well as security cover of 100 percent of the project cost. Further, customers may apply jointly with others, as long as at least one borrower has a legal connection to the property. Customers can also enjoy a flexible grace period of up to 12 months.

Maldivians between 18 – 60 years of age that generate adequate income to fulfill the loan repayments that are routed to a BML account for the past 12 months are eligible for this scheme.

The key features of the Home Equity Loan include having an interest rate of 10 percent with no additional equity and Maldivians between 18 – 60 of age that are owners of mortgaged property, that have a secured housing loan facility that has been active for a minimum of two years are eligible for this loan.

BML revealed that if the primary mortgaged loan is availed in joint capacity, customers will be eligible for the Home Equity Loan in joint capacity, as long as their income is routed to a BML account for the past 12 months. Customers’ income must be from all sources including salary, business income and rental income.

The bank added that the repayment of all existing credit facilities must be satisfactory for the past 12 months.

Customers based in Malé can make an appointment through BML’s portal and arrange a time to visit the BML Loan Center to apply for the loan. Once an appointment is made, customers will receive an SMS with their appointment time and BML will be issuing slots for the next 10 working days.

Customers in other areas are required to take a token through QueueBee to visit the relevant branch to submit the Home Construction Loan application form along with required documents, by visiting their respective branches.

The loans have a non-refundable application fee of MVR 1,000 with a processing fee of 1.5 percent of the loan amount.