Azerbaijan, Baku, June 18 / Trend , N. Ismayilova/
Azerbaijani Royal Bank has begun to consider requests on mortgage lending which will be carried out by the Azerbaijan Mortgage Fund (AMF) at the Central Bank of Azerbaijan. The bank will lend mortgage loans starting from this month, the bank said.
"Now we are considering 13 requests and will launch lending this month," a source in the bank said.
Bank's portfolio via AMF totals 1 million manat.
Bank will also proceed with its own mortgage program.
The 2009 public budget has allocated 14.5 million manat to finance social mortgage lending. It has issued bonds worth 55 million manat for commercial mortgage lending, 15 million of which have been placed.
Azerbaijan launched mortgage lending under AMF standards on March 25, 2006 and social lending in February 2007.
Demand for mortgages exceeded the budget assignment and AMF ceased funding for mortgage loans on its standards from mid-June 2007. AMF 68 received million manat from the public budget in 2005-2008. Portfolio of loans (1981) under AMF standards is 75 million manat, with an overall mortgage portfolio of banks amounting to 250-300 million manat.
The rates on loans vary from 4-8 percent (standard AIF) to 18-20 percent with term of 10 to 25 years in commercial banks. AMF has 17 agent banks.
On June 18, the official exchange rate is 0. 8039 manat to $1.
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