CBE agrees to lower interest rates for middle-income housing

CBE to renew mortgage financing program for middle-income homeowners: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has agreed to a proposal from the Federation of Egyptian Industries’ Real Estate Development Chamber to reintroduce lower interest rates for would-be middle-income homebuyers, Zawya reports. The initiative will offer preferential interest rates of 10.5% to prospective homeowners starting from July, the chamber’s chairman Tarek Shoukry said at a real estate development conference on Monday. The program originally ran from 2014 until january this year and offered middle-income homeowners long-term loans at a 5-7% rate of interest. The government said last month it was considering setting up a fund to support middle-income Egyptians looking to buy homes.