BEIRUT, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese member of parliament Chamel Roukoz submitted Thursday a draft law to the parliament to reactivate housing loans in Lebanon, local media reported.
"We proposed to subsidize each of these loans by 5 percent by the government," Roukoz was quoted as saying by Elnashra, an independent online newspaper.
Lebanon's Public Corporation for Housing announced on July 8 that no applications for housing loans will be accepted from July 9.
The Central Bank of Lebanon usually funds the housing loans. It provided commercial banks with a fund worth 500 million U.S. dollars in February, allocated for subsidized housing loans that would be used by Lebanese citizens to buy apartments.
The fund, however, was drained within a month.
The commercial banks therefore are offering housing loans with an interest rate of around 6 to 7 percent compared to 3 percent for subsidized loans, making people hesitate to purchase at such high interest rates.
As a result, some political parties voiced their concerns about this new crisis, emphasizing the need to find quick solutions to solve this issue.
