The Managing Director of Family Homes Funds, Femi Adewole has said that a home ownership scheme developed by the Funds called Help to Own is a great opportunity for many Nigerians, especially those in the low income bracket to own their homes at very affordable rate.
While speaking to Africa Housing News on Thursday in Abuja, Adewole said the objective of Help to Own is basically to contribute to improving the availability of home financing for people on low income.
‘’Help to own scheme of the family homes funds is what we call our fund two. Currently one of the challenges for affordable housing in Nigeria is the fact that the long term financing that is needed for home financing is very few and far between.
‘’The objective of the Help to Own scheme is to provide for people on low income and we define that in our own terms as Nigerians earning less than N100, 000 per month. The fund provides them with a concessionary loan for up to 40% of the cost of the house and on that 40% financial assistance, they have a moratorium for 5 years on interest and principal. That is to say they don’t pay anything on that loan for the first 5 years.
‘’That makes the very early stages of home ownership a lot easier for them. It means that technically the only have to raise financing for 50% of the homes. We think that it will bring a huge number of people into home ownership market, but it is at its early stages and we will keep improving this product. We think that it has significant potential for ensuring that many more Nigerians can afford to live in their own homes,’’ he said.
The Family Homes Funds is a federal government social housing scheme mandated to provide up to 500,000 affordable homes for Nigerians by 2023.
