Presidential candidate for the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN), Johnny Araya, yesterday extended his promise for accessible housing for young couples and the middle class.
The plan, if elected president, is to provide housing for some 20,000 middle class families, making use of existing legislation for housing projects already handled by the state banks, the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) and Banco Nacional (BN), explained Araya.
Vice-presidential candidate, Silvia Lara, said the state banks have some ¢600 billion colones that could used to give financial support to the plan.
Besides the state banks, the Araya plan is to include two other state institutions, the Banco Hipotecario de la Vivienda (Banhvi) – Housing Mortgage Bank, and the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo (INVU) – National Institute of Housing and Urbanism.
As explained, the proposal is that this group of home buyers will not need a down payment (prima in Spanish) to obtain credit. Lara stressed that, by law, the Banhvi can guarantee the down payment, when a person applies for credit at financial institution.
The second option is acquisition by way of a lease with a purchase option. With the help of the government institutions, rental payments can be applied towards a down payment.
“The Banco Nacional has already introduced it and the Banco de Costa Rica will soon announce it. What we want is to promote it as a government policy, working with the banks to the maximum”, Lara said.
Araya added that his proposals are “products that can be legally implemented by the Costa Rica financial system, ie the state banks.”
Source: La Nacion
