TEHRAN - Bank Maskan, the acting bank of Iran's housing sector, has provided 100,000 loans for the housing development during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-December 21, 2019), Mehr news agency reported on Saturday.

As reported, the number of the mentioned facilities decreased by about 45 percent in the said period compared to the 167,000 loans paid during the last year’s nine-month time span.

According to the data provided by the bank, in terms of the number, bond facilities comprised the biggest share of the mentioned facilities in the said period.

In the mentioned time span, the number of people who applied for loans for purchasing homes was less than the number of those who applied for construction loans.

Over 31,200 construction loans were paid in the mentioned nine-months, registering a 45-percent rise compared to the past year’s same period, according to Bank Maskan data.

Based on the data, in the mentioned period, a total of 30 trillion rials (about $714 million) was paid for construction and 22.3 trillion rials (about $530 million) for house purchases, while 52.3 trillion rials (about $1.2 billion) was also offered in the form of bond facilities.

So in terms of value, bond facilities ranked first among the paid loans followed by purchasing loans.

Bank Maskan’s facilities are granted mainly in the forms of bond facilities and savings funds (which could be used for construction or purchase of houses).

In December 2019, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) reported that Iranian banks and financial institutions offered a total of 6,288,511 loans, of which 11.5 percent were granted to the housing sector.

According to the report, 724,255 loans worth 390.94 trillion rials ($3 billion) were given out to different housing subsectors, including for home purchase, construction, and repair, during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-November 21, 2019).

EF/MA