Dubai: Emirates Bank International, the UAE's second-biggest lender by assets, plans to begin offering home loans to foreigners as the new property law announced in March allows them to own property in Dubai, a top official said yesterday.
Louis Scotto, Emirates Bank's general manager for retail banking, told Gulf News the bank had put together a full package of mortgage products that were now being evaluated by the company's lawyers.
The products will be presented to the company's board for approval and launched over the next two months.
"Mortgages will be a major retail product for us and we expect it to generate Dh200-Dh400 million a month, that is what most of the people are doing. We aim to be one of the top three mortgage lenders in the UAE," Scotto said.
Emirates Bank currently offers home loans to UAE nationals only, as property ownership until recently was restricted to them.
The announcement of the new property law in March, however, formally allowed foreigners to own property in certain clusters in Dubai. The change is expected to boost demand for homes and mortgages.
The UAE home loan market, dominated by stand-alone Islamic companies Amlak and Tamweel, is expected to expand 30 per cent in 2006 to Dh11 billion, industry officials say.
Many foreign banks are expected to announce plans to enter the home loan market, which has about a dozen players.
Scotto said demand for homes in the UAE was strong and the bank's home loan products would be flexible and not insist on a salary transfer.
He said the retail banking division contributed less than a quarter of Emirates Bank's income but its share was growing every year.
Emirates Bank's revenues rose 62.7 per cent in 2005 to Dh2.57 billion and profit jumped 78.2 per cent to Dh1.73 billion.