The executive president of the National Association of Savings and Loans said yesterday that the entry of the banks into the mortgage market did not affect the S&L system, but helped them become more efficient, because they had to create mergers, and this allowed them to offer a broader range of products to their clients.
S&L’s president Freddy Reyes, who said he was in agreement with the construction of low-cost housing in the country, with terms of up to 30 years, said that for this to happen they needed measures that would keep the interest rates low and stable for a long period of time. He expressed agreement with the current measures taken by the Monetary Board, which reduced the interest rate for the mortgage market because this helped reactivate the housing construction sector.
“The association is interested in supporting the construction of low-cost housing. The state reaches a limit for social housing and from that point on the associations begin, which is to say, in the lower middle class, which is the type of housing we are promoting”, he stated.
Reyes said that the problem for the middle and lower classes is the down payment, since someone who works and has a good salary just does not have the money for a down payment, which is nearly always 20% of the value of the house, including the lot. “This is the only problem, but I think that we can make new types of mortgages. Once we get past this problem in the world mortgage markets, we will be designing new long-term financing plans”, he declared.
He said that as used to be the case, financing should be for more than 30 years and with low interest, but only as a consequence of measures taken by the monetary authorities.