High interest rates deter ownership of affordable houses

Editor, Allow me to react to the article, “Kigali City targets 1,000 affordable houses in 2015” (The New Times, January 2). These are stories we hear every day! The writer didn’t comprehensively explain how affordable the houses will be given the fact that most of the city dwellers earn below Rwf300, 000 per month.

Sunday, January 04, 2015
An aerial view of new houses in Kibagabaga. (Timothy Kisambira)

Editor,

Allow me to react to the article, "Kigali City targets 1,000 affordable houses in 2015” (The New Times, January 2).

These are stories we hear every day! The writer didn’t comprehensively explain how affordable the houses will be given the fact that most of the city dwellers earn below Rwf300, 000 per month.

How much would a house cost for this low income city dweller?

The cost of living in Kigali is so high and interest on loans is also too high. Imagine most banks in Kigali charge around 20% interest per annum. This is too high.

Our prayers should be that the Government intervenes and regulates the interest rates on loans to atleast 13-14% per annum; this would help a lot the city dwellers to afford such houses.

Mathias

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The Government needs to step in and impose lower rates rather than waiting for the competition to bring it down.

The other day a high ranking official was quoted saying that we can and should negotiate for lower rates when applying for loans, but we all know that is nigh impossible.

We are powerless; the way we are treated seems like the banks are doing us a favour. This is really sad.

Ed