BEIRUT, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Central Bank issued a circular on Wednesday allocating 200 million U.S. dollars for subsidized housing loans in 2019 after they had been suspended in July 2018.
The loans will be given over 20 years at an interest rate of 5.92 percent compared to past housing loans offered by the central bank over 30 years with an interest rate of 3.75 percent.
The Central Bank of Lebanon usually funds the housing loans through the Public Corporation for Housing and the Housing Bank.
In February 2018, it provided commercial banks with a fund worth 500 million dollars, which was allocated for Lebanese citizens to buy apartments.
The fund, however, was drained within a month.
This has caused real estate developers to suffer from a stagnated market because they were counting on the housing bank to finance the purchase of apartments.
Some people have complained that they have already made a down payment to buy apartments while counting on the housing bank to finance the rest of the purchases with subsidized loans.
As a result, some political parties voiced their concerns about the crisis while emphasizing the need to find solutions to solve it.
