NHE accused of charging high interest

WITH the cost of housing and foreclosures by banks taking centre stage, the National Housing Enterprises (NHE) has been accused by some of its clients of not sticking to its mandate of providing affordable housing to the needy.

The state housing enterprise is in the firing line for allegedly charging exorbitant interest rates on home loans, with some of its clients suggesting that the entity ‘is milking them to the bone’ rather than helping them have shelter over their heads.’If I’m paying N$3 500 per month and their interest is N$1 600, I am only paying N$1 900 which is not covering the house instalments. Meaning there is no way that I will finish paying my house,’ one NHE customer wrote in an e-mail to The Namibian.’Housing is a basic need. Government must review and re-look at interest rates and know where to tax and where not,’ she wrote.In response NHE senior communications officer Gladwin Groenewaldt said the interest rate normally fluctuates. He said they would meet the client personally to explain the interest rate.’The National Housing Enterprise acknowledges receipt of the customer’s concern,’ he said.At Walvis Bay, two pensioners got the shock of their lives when they read in The Namibian that the house where they had lived for 20 years was about to be auctioned.They had business partners who allegedly obtained an overdraft from a local bank and did not repay it, prompting the bank to auction the house.’The sad part of it is that the bank never informed us about the issue, we only leant about it in the newspaper,’ said one of the pensioners, who did not want her name published.’We nearly lost our house had we not seen the advert in The Namibian newspaper that our house was going to be auctioned. We would have no house through business partners not paying their share of the overdraft.’They had to sell the house to settle the debt.’We had never slipped up on a payment on the house. We lived 20 years in this house. We are pensioners and have to sell now,’ she said.