PROPERTY, PENSION INDUSTRY PLAYERS LAUD NEW MORTGAGE REGULATIONS

PROPERTY, PENSION INDUSTRY PLAYERS LAUD NEW MORTGAGE REGULATIONS

By Vera Shawiza

Property and pension industry players have

welcomed the new mortgage regulations during

a 3-day conference that combined insights from

both regional and global experts on the

implementation of the new regulation.

The Mortgage Regulation 2020 stipulates that

the funds accessed upon retirement can only be

used on a dwelling house for residential

purposes with members accessing up to 40% of

the accrued benefits, capped at KES 7 million.

“This conference aims to put our heads

together and come up with administrative

actions to assist the trustees in the

implementation of this new regulation,” said

Octagon Africa Group Chief Executive Officer

Fred Waswa.

“This mortgage loan regulation is a good

incentive for members to save knowing that as

much as they are saving for their long-term

objective, retirement, there is an immediate

intervention when they want to acquire a house

for themselves. Trustees of pension schemes

will need to amend their investment policy

statements taking into consideration new

liquidity requirements,” he added.

This conference comes after section 38 of the

Retirement Benefits Act was recently amended

to allow members of retirement benefit

schemes to utilize a proportion of their accrued

benefits to purchase a residential house.

Speaking during the official opening of the

conference Principal Secretary, State

Department for Housing and Urban

Development Mr. Charles Hinga Mwaura

commended Octagon Africa for bringing

together such a forum with key experts from

property, financial and pension sectors.

“We must work together as industry players and

be deliberate about expanding the dream of

homeownership to even more people. As a

country, we have the lowest mortgage to GDP

ratio in the world. We must therefore be

deliberate in our efforts and work diligently to

promote the affordable housing, more so

homeownership which is a dream to 97% of

people, especially to people of low income,” he

added.

The Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company

approximates that there are only 21,000

mortgages in the country signifying that the

new regulation, if well implemented will bring

about affordability, contributing to the Big Four

Agenda.

Octagon Africa, headquartered in Nairobi,

Kenya, is one of the leading financial services

providers of pension, actuarial services,

insurance brokerage and training services to

individuals, non-profit, public and private sector

organisations.

In line with its Pan-African dream, Octagon has

expanded its operations to Kampala, Uganda

and Lusaka, Zambia. Over the last 13 years,

Octagon Africa has grown its fund portfolio to

more than 200 corporate clients.