Plea to fast-track housing scheme

Dubai: The Federal National Council yesterday demanded the government fast-track the building of 40,000 houses ordered by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2008.

Representatives of the House also demanded an increase in the budget of the Shaikh Zayed housing programme, which provides Emiratis with housing grants and loans.

Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al Za'abi, a member from Ras Al Khaimah, questioned the pace at which the government was building houses for citizens.

"The financial crisis should not be blamed for the failure to meet the targets as there are agreements between the Zayed Housing Programme and the Ministry of Finance so that loans are provided and interest be borne by the government," Al Za'abi said.

Emergency loans

He added the financial crisis had not affected the Ministry of Finance, which offered strong support to banks during the crisis.

In 2008, the UAE Central Bank provided the banking sector with Dh50 billion of liquidity support, followed a month later by Dh70 billion in emergency loans offered by the Ministry of Finance, which also provided a blanket guarantee of bank deposits for three years.

Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Public Works, said in a letter to the House, initial approvals were given to 20,000 applications for houses or housing loans in 2008, so that as many as 8,000 applications would be processed every year.

Financial support

He added 6,321 housing loans worth Dh3.2 billion were approved, but due to the global financial crisis, the Ministry of Finance was unable to provide financial support even to approvals given already.

"As a result the Zayed Housing Programme undertook the burden after the government remarkably increased its budget," Shaikh Hamdan said.

Urgent need

Members of the Federal National Council argue that many Emiratis do not own their houses — a factor which they said causes economic and social instability.

They estimated tens of thousand of citizens were in urgent need of houses, adding that their applications for housing grants or loans have been turned down.