Otbasy Bank launches “Umay” housing program (Mortgage for women)

Otbasy Bank (a subsidiary of Baiterek Holding) launches a mortgage program for women aimed at promoting gender equality in home mortgage financing. Applications are accepted starting April 12, 2021.

Asian Development Bank has allocated 38 billion tenge for the program which is intended to improve the living conditions of women.

Only adult citizens of Kazakhstan are eligible for the program. Monthly family income should not exceed 320,000 tenge. There are no restrictions on the type of housing – mortgagors can purchase both new and resale housing. The loans are also issued for the purchase of an apartment under an equity participation agreement, and for renovation purposes.

If monthly income is less than 200,000 tenge, the maximum loan amount is 85% of the housing cost excluding housing construction savings. Note that the estimated cost must be confirmed by the Bank's collateral risk department. If monthly income is 200,001-320,000 tenge, the maximum loan amount is 80% of the housing cost excluding housing construction savings.

The maximum housing cost is 30 million tenge. The maximum loan amount for housing renovation is 3,700,000 tenge.

Basic loan terms:

The interest rate is 12% (effective annual interest rate – ≥ 12.2%), gradually decreasing to 5% (effective annual interest rate – ≥ 5.2%).

Down payment – 15-50%

The term of the preliminary loan – 6 months-10 years

Some 4,000 women are expected to improve their living conditions under the program.

Otbasy Bank, understanding the importance of family values, has always tried to increase the economic activity of women and to raise the number of women-homeowners. For instance, the Bakytty Otbasy housing program (2-10-20) was initiated in 2019 on behalf of Nursultan Nazarbayev. About 10,000 loans were issued, with 92% of the borrowers being women.

The Asian Development Bank’s program is intended for women with higher incomes who buy their second or third home in order to improve their living conditions or to purchase real estate for their children.

– The Bank has launched a mortgage program for women after receiving many requests to develop an affordable program with a low down payment of 20%. Another request was to allow people to purchase resale housing so they could choose a house close to a school, a kindergarten, or a place of work. Based on these factors, even with a high cost of resources, we expect the demand for this program to be quite high, – said Lyazzat Ibragimova, the head of Otbasy Bank.

According to the latest data, in Kazakhstan, 48% of mortgagors are women. Today the share of women who got mortgages in Otbasy Bank exceeds the share of men. Precisely speaking, 57% of the bank’s mortgagors are women. In terms of the loan amount and the balance of debt – the proportion of women is 53%. Over the past 5 years, women have gotten more mortgages in Otbasy Bank than men. Their share has not changed significantly and amounts to 55-57%.