The Real Estate Institute of Zimbabwe (REIZ) has bemoaned the high mortgage lending rates in the country saying they are too steep compared to regional counterparts. Mike Majuru the president of the REIZ said:
The current mortgage lending rates of 12 percent per annum over a 10 to 15 year period on a United States dollar is quite steep compared to say, South Africa, which attracts the interest of around 10 percent over 25 years is charged on the Rand. That alone makes our repayments high.
In other economies, it is possible for one to make a choice of either purchasing a house through a mortgage or rent a property with repayments and rentals being in the same range.
In a nutshell, the issues on mortgage finance hovers around the interest rates, the loan period or tenure, the 25 percent deposit, low levels of income, proof of employment and title deeds.
More: Herald
We under-valued the USD at dollarisation and are reaping the problems. Everything in Zim is more expensive than regional, perhaps excluding Angola because Angola made the same mistake by adopting The USD and under-valueing it. Solution is to adopt the rand and use prices from RSA. We are much smaller economy compared to RSA and therefore there would be no justification to charge prices higher than RSA, even with endemic corruption.