Myanmar in talks with Japan for low-interest housing loan

Myanmar’s Union government has been in negotiations with the Japanese government to offer lower-interest housing loans to low-income property seekers, Eleven Myanmar reported.

The loans will be made available within a month at the earliest, said Nilar Kyaw, regional minister for electricity, industry and transportation, during a regional parliament session on Monday.

“Although the government already sold the apartments to people who made full payment at the time of purchase, it is under negotiation with the Japanese government to reduce the interest rate from 13 percent to 8.5 percent for the people who want to buy the apartments under mortgaged loan,” she said.

Nilar Kyaw let slip the plans in response to a question by MP Kyaw Tun of No.2 Lanmadaw Constituency as to when the first batch of buyers that had placed a downpayment for low-cost and affordable housing would be allowed to occupy the units.

The MP also asked when the Union government can attend to reported damages in the low-cost and affordable housing projects.

The Sales Management Committee for Public Housings in Yangon Region is supervising the sale of low-cost and affordable apartments, numbering around 703 and 161 apartments, respectively. Around 722 people were deemed qualified to buy the apartments as of July, Nilar Kyaw said.

The committee had received a total of 6,020 applications for the units in April.