You would be forgiven for thinking that the arrival of a new mortgage product isn’t usually something that makes the news on most days. However, this is an important and historic mortgage product, bearing in mind it is for property in the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul.
A few miles north of the city, a new development of homes is under construction, which will not only push forward the housing market in the country, but also go some small way to helping to solve the chronic housing shortage. Over 25 years of almost-continuous conflict has destroyed over a third of the housing stock in Afghanistan, and this new development, called New Kabul, is being seen as an innovative and ambitious experiment.
The project will see the country’s banks buying the properties from the government, and then selling them to customers who will, over period of around 16 years, pay a mortgage of $100 to $150 monthly to become the outright owners, reports BBC Online.