The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business

Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Mortgage Corporation has slashed Nassau loan delinquencies by 20 percentage points, its chair disclosed yesterday, adding that too many borrowers believe they can escape paying because it is government owned.

Barbara Cartwright told Tribune Business that since she was appointed the Corporation has been chipping away at non-performing loans that once accounted for as much as half its loan book, reducing these from 50 percent to around 30 percent for New Providence largely by restructuring existing facilities. The delinquency rate among Family Island mortgage borrowers stands slightly higher at 35 percent.

“We haven’t financed a house in years. They did a couple of private mortgages but not that many. The thing is we had a delinquency problem when I first got there, so we’re trying to work through that and trying to restructure mortgages. We’ve been doing a lot of that since November,” Ms Cartwright said.

The Mortgage Corporation is working with the Ministry of Housing and Transport to develop housing subdivisions around the country, the Pine Crest and Carmichael Village projects in New Providence, and others in Abaco and Eleuthera, among the most prominent. These are employing a public-private partnership (PPP) model where private capital and developers are financing and/or constructing these developments.

Arawak Homes has constructed properties in the Pine Crest subdivision, while the Carmichael Village project is being financed by Jamaican-headquartered Proven Wealth Management’s $20m investment.

Ms Cartwright said: “The Carmichael Village programme is just about ready to start on the construction, but we already have 107 people pre-approved. We have had over 400 people that have applied and, from the initial process for the assessment, they have been approved. But we have to make sure we check loan balances and all of the other things.”

Some 200 homes will be constructed in Carmichael Village’s first phase. “We have another 47 homes in Pine Crest, and then 30 homes in Abaco and 50 in Eleuthera. They have started the clearing and land surveying in Eleuthera already, but they haven’t started their construction,” Ms Cartwright said.

“But things are going good all around at the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation. We are giving out another set of keys at the end of the week for Pine Crest, and then Carmichael Village is going to start shortly. We also have a couple of houses finished in Abaco and they will get keys next week.”

The Abaco homes were expected to be completed before September 16, but there were “a lot of hurdles with the Ministry of Works”. Only two of the 30 homes are ready now, with a total of 200 ultimately planned for Abaco.