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UniBank increases mortgage lending

Business Materials 23 August 2010 11:01 (UTC +04:00)
UniBank, an active participant in the Azerbaijan Mortgage Fund (AMF), has issued 285 loans worth 11.477 million manat via the fund since resuming lending in June 2009.

Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug.23 / Trend, I.Khalilova /

UniBank, an active participant in the Azerbaijan Mortgage Fund (AMF), has issued 285 loans worth 11.477 million manat via the fund since resuming lending in June 2009.

"We are increasing our mortgage lending as the AMF has raised our limit from 1 million to 8 million manat," UniBank told Trend. "This allows our bank to provide refinancing within two or three months."

Since early 2010, 169 of 176 mortgage loan applications have been approved at the bank. Loans worth 3.8 million manat have been issued so far this year.

"Due to decreased activity on the country's real estate market, the average mortgage loan increased from 41,000-42,000 to 44,000 manat," the bank said. The decreased activity was the result of seasonal factors, UniBank told Trend.

The slump during the summer has affected the number of issued loans, UniBank said. If 20-30 loans are usually issued per month, only 9-11 loans were issued monthly during the summer due to the heat and other seasonal factors.

The average age of UniBank's mortgage loan recipients is 34 years.

UniBank earlier received two loans to fund housing from the IFC and the Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij Voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V. Each institution provided $15 million.

The AMF was established in December 2005. The fund began to issue mortgage loans in March 2006. The AMF stopped issuing mortgage lending due to a lack of funds in the summer of 2007. The fund resumed lending in June 2009. Since 2006, the AMF has issued mortgage loans worth 212.3 million manat.

Unibank is one of Azerbaijan's top 10 banks. Its authorized capital is 36 million manat.

The official exchange rate today is 0.8038 manat to $1.

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