Urgent need for the Housing Finance Corporation (HFC) to receive substantive support

Statement by AKEL MP Andros Kafkalias

24 November 2023

The previous government not only did not support the Housing Finance Corporation (HFC), but undermined it, with decisions taken or not taken, leaving it understaffed and without the necessary expertise to be able to fulfill its mission.

The N. Christodoulides government, instead of making the support of the Corporation an immediate priority and taking immediate steps to improve its operations and proceeding to viable loan restructurings, has tabled a bill to permit the HFC to proceed with the sales of loans.

AKEL voted against this bill. As we have repeatedly stressed, the sale of loans, especially within a biased legal framework in favour of Credit Acquisition Companies and Loan Management Companies, should not be preferred as the easy solution for reducing Non Performing Loans, especially for loans held by the Housing Finance Corporation.

What needs to be done to provide substantial support to the HFC is its staffing and technological upgrading, so that it is able, without delays, to examine and proceed with viable restructurings, to examine applications for various state schemes for NPL’s, as well as applications for new loans, especially today when commercial banks either do not proceed with new lending or the cost of the lending offered is too high.

In any case, as AKEL we will continue to assert that the Corporation be restored to the mission for which it was established. That is, to facilitate and strengthen access to housing for the low income and middle strata of society.