The Ghana cedi mortgage rates have experienced a significant decline over the last six months – witnessing a record average drop of about 40%.
The development follows the continued stability of the Ghana cedi against the major currencies in the foreign exchange market as well as a generally low depreciation level of the local currency.
Speaking to the press, the CEO of one of the country’s leading mortgage finance institutions - Ghana Home Loans, Dominic Adu said his company’s cedi mortgage rate has dropped by about 44 percent as a result.
He noted that “If you were to ask us in December what our cedi mortgage rate would have been, I would have told you about 33-36%. As we are speaking, we are talking about say 18-20%. So there has been a significant impact on our cost of taking a mortgage with us which has come down almost close to halfâ€.
According to last month’s Bank of Ghana data, the cedi had depreciated by 3.9% to the dollar, 8.7 and 11.8% to the British pound and Euro respectively as at 19th of July, 2017.
Furthermore, a year on year analysis of the local currency’s performance showed that the cedi had depreciated by 3% to the US dollar which recorded its lowest depreciation rate over the last one year.
However, the growing stability of the currency has surged up confidence among customers and businesses – particularly those in the mortgage industry; who are of the view that relatively low mortgage rate will attract more patronage to the plan from among Ghana’s working population with the desire to own their homes.