Official: Over 2K citizens improve their living conditions via rent-to-own system

By Azernews

By Sabina Mammadli

As many as 2,449 citizens improve their living conditions as part of the rent-to-own system, Head of Mortgage Loans Department under the Azerbaijani Mortgage and Credit Guarantee Fund Rasim Abdullayev said.

The remarks were made during media training.

"As of September 27, the Fund has offered business loan guarantees and subsidies in the amount of 320.7 million manats ($188.8 million). A total of 40,438 borrowers in 50 regions were issued 2.85 billion manats ($1.6 billion) of mortgage loans," he said.

He specified that Azerbaijani banks' maximum margin on conventional mortgage loans is four percent.

According to Abdullayev, the margin on concessional loans is three percent.

"The value of the fund attracted funds is three percent at ordinary interest, and one percent is the margin determined by the fund," he added.

Further, Deputy Director of the Rental housing department Aslan Zeynalov stressed that a total of 2,462 rental housing agreements have been concluded in Azerbaijan as of today,

Zeynalov noted that the total amount of offered apartments is 2,852, and the remaining apartments - 390.

“More than 51 percent of those who applied from the public sector, and about 49 percent were in the private sector. The average monthly income of those who applied is 1,300 manat ($764), the average monthly payment is 1,140 manat ($670)," he stated.

During the same briefing, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Director-General for Central and Western Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov stated that the bank continues to support Azerbaijan’s effort to increase its share of renewable energy.

“We fully support the government of Azerbaijan's effort to increase the share of renewable energy and overall energy capacity through the development of the offshore solar power capacities and we will be looking very carefully at any possibilities to invest in this area,” he said.

Recently ADB approved an investment of about $20-22 million to support a solar power project in Azerbaijan.

“We are very happy to see that Azerbaijan has ambitious plans to diversify into renewable energy and we would be there to support the government with public sector finances and also looking for private sector opportunities,” he added.

According to Zhukov, ADB currently starting preparations for the next Country Partnership Strategy for Azerbaijan and in the coming month will be discussing with the government priority areas for investments over the next 5 years period.

The Mortgage and Credit Guarantee Fund was established following the Presidential Decree in 2017 through the reorganization and merger of Azerbaijan Mortgage Fund OJSC and Azerbaijan Credit Guarantee Fund OJSC.