After an 80 percent drop in the placement of houses in Nicaragua, the banks have reopened mortgage credit, which keeps the house construction sector alive, which hopes to attract a large part of the more than 3,000 interested in acquire a home that came to Expo Casa, which ended yesterday in Managua.
Although the goal proposed prior to the fair was to achieve four thousand visits in the two days of the fair, Félix Baltodano, president of the Chamber of Developers (Cadur), considers that the expectations of the sector have been exceeded, mainly after coming from three years of strong contractions, in which period the banks tightened their mortgage financing policy.
Rates reached 14 percent, but at the fair they gave a sign of starting to drop and the premium also began to fall, according to a survey carried out by LA PRENSA during the event, which brought together all Nicaraguan banks and more of 44 housing projects, in the context of the reactivation of the economy.
“This would really be a record at our fair, being the first of the year, so our expectations have been exceeded, families have come quite close, largely due to the opening of national banks, we have more than seven financing options for families with good conditions and, therefore, we believe that this has been one of the main reasons why they have approached ”, said Baltodano.
At the fair, subdivision projects, social housing, houses with prices above those of social interest, beach residences, houses with high purchasing power, among others, were presented.
“This has been the most successful fair of all, if we see it in quantitative terms of reservations, also in terms of bringing together most of the projects, because in the fairs we had held in previous years, we managed to have an average of 20 to 25 projects, today we have 44, seven major financial institutions ”, expressed the president of Cadur.
Also read: Rates, terms, requirements … Everything you need to know about what banks are asking for at the housing fair.
However, Baltodano acknowledges that the levels of home purchase reservations observed in 2016 and 2017 have not yet been achieved, but there was a sign of reactivation. Until three in the afternoon yesterday, a preliminary balance indicates that a little more than 100 had booked a house purchase, whose figure they expected to bring it to 200 at the end of the entire event, which ended until 7:00 at night.
What type of housing are Nicaraguans looking for?
According to exhibitors from the different development companies, there is a good balance between families who want to opt for a home of less than 30 thousand dollars, which are applicable to the premium bonus of the Institute of Urban and Rural Housing (Invur) and other families who are interested in acquiring larger homes and, therefore, with a price greater than 30 thousand dollars.
“It has been possible to make reservations for housing, both financed and cash, I have been attending the fair since 2016, right now we see that there has been less influx of people, but the people who are coming are customers of higher quality, we are saying , people who are more interested ”, commented Lester Rugama, external advisor of the Vistas de Momotombo Urbanization.
“They are looking for quite a few houses that are not of social interest, they are looking for other more spacious models, we are talking about three rooms or four rooms and we could also say that the other half are looking for social interest,” he added.
Also read: Government offers subsidy for those who buy housing in buildings.
Reynaldo Torres, commercial manager of the San Miguel Urbanization, assured that “the acceptance has been good. Houses have been reserved, the expectations we had were minimal, but they have been expanded little by little, because between yesterday and today they have been much better. Coincidentally today (yesterday) Sunday, the behavior has been much better than yesterday (Saturday) and I think that many people have been encouraged or reactivated to return to take a good through the bank ”.
Will the national bank continue to offer good conditions after the Expo Casa? This is one of the questions that has yet to be resolved, but Baltodano acknowledged the support of the national bank this year, one of the main reasons why people would have been encouraged to come to look for a home.
“That has been something positive, because the families have managed to come and have been able to ask the bank executive, in the face of the bank manager, the conditions and have been able to verify what we have been saying all week, that the conditions today for today they are better, even than before 2018. So this is something positive because the families realize that it is not something that we developers are selling as a strategy to sell houses, but that it is something real, that the profit is it takes the family ”, he assured.
Regarding the continuation of these conditions after the fair, he said: “They are indeed giving good conditions at this fair, we have seen interest rates of 9 percent fixed for a few years, which are historically low rates, we are sure that after After the fair, the banks will continue with fairly similar conditions. We, from Cadur, are pushing and pushing to make it so. We are sure that an alliance, which we have always had but nowadays closer, will manage to recover the sector ”.
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