New home saving scheme to start on Monday |06 February 2010
People who have applied for a house or a loan with the Ministry of National Development,
So far, registration has been arranged for two districts – Roche Caïman and Plaisance – Housing Finance Company (HFC) chief executive Charles Bastienne said yesterday.
Housing officials will be registering people at Roche Caïman on Monday and Tuesday, February 8 and 9, from 8am to 3pm, and at Plaisance on Wednesday and Thursday, February 10 and 11, at the same times.
Announcement for other districts will be made in due course.
Mr Bastienne said the exercise is being carried out like this for logistical reasons. The idea for the saving scheme was raised during the district consultative meetings held by President James Michel last year, he added.
Its aim is to encourage people to make savings contributions towards their own home and to develop a sense of responsibility in our people to start saving early for a house.
Mr Bastienne stressed that to begin with, the exercise is targeting only those people who have already applied for a house or a loan with the Ministry of National Development and whose applications are still with the ministry. There are around 7,000 such cases.
He said it is compulsory for all people who have submitted applications to the ministry for a house or a loan to report to their districts to be registered under the new scheme on the specific dates announced.
Mr Bastienne said it is important that all applicants turn up to be registered as this will help the ministry and the HFC to see whether these people are still interested in getting a house or a loan and to update their records.
He said the exercise will be quick as all applicants are already on the national database, and so the housing officials will only have to enter their names for all their information to be available.
Once registered, applicants will have to sign a salary deduction agreement to contribute 10% of their net salary to the scheme. They will receive 4% interest on their savings towards the scheme, Mr Bastienne stressed.
After the exercise, which is expected to last for two months, the ministry will have an updated list of people who are still interested in benefiting from government help for a house.
Mr Bastienne said applicants who are not in work should also report to register and should not miss out, as the housing officials will make a note of their present employment status.
He said other people who want to apply to make contributions to the scheme will be told about this possibility once the exercise with existing applicants has been completed.
For the time being, the new scheme is not targeting people who have submitted applications for a plot of land, Mr Bastienne stressed. These applicants will be notified later.