The National Commercial Bank, NCB, recently announced that it will now be providing residential mortgages to its customers. NCB is now offering a promotional mortgage rate of 7.99 percent with a reduction in commitment fees as high as 50 percent. Described as Jamaica’s largest bank, NCB has become the seventh financial institution in the island to participate in the Joint Finance Mortgage Programme by The National Housing Trust (NHT).
According to The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), fewer persons have been receiving mortgages from financial institutions. The PIOJ reported that the number of mortgages approved have decreased by 4.2 percent for the period ending June 2017 to 2,013 mortgages. This caused the total value of mortgages to decrease by 10.6 percent to JMD$9.2 billion.
The Joint Finance Mortgage Programme provides additional financial support to persons who may need further assistance other than what is given to them by the NHT. The borrower has to pay the lending financial institution at its own interest rate and the NHT at a separate interest rate. The repayment is however, done at the financial institution. It is important to note that the NHT lends money to purchase houses at an interest rate as low as zero to six percent.
This new venture for NCB began in July of 2017 but was just made public. Another strategy by NCB to grow its customer base as it continues to rake in profits and continues its exceptional performance on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Market. NCB currently trades at $99.77 on the JSE.
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