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Absa funds low-cost housing

Absa funds low-cost housing

JOHANNESBURG – Absa , South Africa’s largest retail bank, has pledged 2,6 billion rand in loans to build low-cost houses in a provincial housing project by 2010, it said on Friday.

Absa Group Chief Executive Steve Booysen said Absa – owned by UK bank Barclays – had a target of 12 billion rand to invest in low-cost housing by 2008 and had released seven billion rand. The bank had budgeted 2,6 billion rand for the project in Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province.South Africa has a big housing shortage as a result of mass migration from rural areas into cities such as Johannesburg, in the country’s most affluent province of Gauteng.Booysen said by 2010 the bank would have been involved in 100 000 low-cost homes in collaboration with the National Housing Ministry.”We (Absa) will have at least one project for every province and two to three projects for every metro,” Booysen said in a statement.According to a memorandum of understanding between the minister of Housing, Absa, the Banking Association of SA and the CEs of FirstRand subsidiary FNB, Nedcor and Standard Bank , banks would strive to deliver a minimum of 42 billion rand worth of loans for new affordable housing for low-income households by the end of 2008.Nampa-ReutersThe bank had budgeted 2,6 billion rand for the project in Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province.South Africa has a big housing shortage as a result of mass migration from rural areas into cities such as Johannesburg, in the country’s most affluent province of Gauteng.Booysen said by 2010 the bank would have been involved in 100 000 low-cost homes in collaboration with the National Housing Ministry.”We (Absa) will have at least one project for every province and two to three projects for every metro,” Booysen said in a statement.According to a memorandum of understanding between the minister of Housing, Absa, the Banking Association of SA and the CEs of FirstRand subsidiary FNB, Nedcor and Standard Bank , banks would strive to deliver a minimum of 42 billion rand worth of loans for new affordable housing for low-income households by the end of 2008.Nampa-Reuters

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