Government eases terms of housing program for young families in Armenia

In a session held last week Armenia's Government introduced changes to the program "Affordable Housing for Young Families."

The initiative is deemed as an attempt to ease the terms of the program aimed at solving housing problem for young families in provinces.

In a press conference today Armenia's Deputy Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Arsen Karamyan said that from now on the beneficiaries will pay a 7-7.5% annual interest rate instead of 8-8.5% as it was previously.

Mr Karamyan also said that even though this initiative may not ease the terms for the participants of this program, they have studied the world practice and have concluded that "there is no such privileged approach to young families" in any other country worldwide.

According to him, it is another issue that the population in Armenia's provinces mainly has low incomes.

Another change in the program the Government has initiated is that instead of making a 30% advance payment for the mortgage, the beneficiaries will now pay about 10% of the total amount as advance payment given they are able to pawn more estate other than the flat itself.

Due to this Government-sponsored program 175 young families have so far bought flats. About 10-12% of such families are living in provinces.

According to Karamyan, applications of 30 young families are being now reviewed, and in all probability the majority of them will in the coming 15 days be approved.