GHL Bank Launches First Mortgage Product As A Bank

GHL Bank on Wednesday underscored its continued commitment to the mortgage sector with the launch of Save-to-Own, a new savings and mortgage product; the first since it became a bank in December 2017.

The Save-to-Own product designed to be a hybrid savings and mortgage product, allows the average Ghanaian, both self-employed and salaried, to demonstrate their ability to service a mortgage in order to acquire a house.

Mr Kojo Addo-Kufour, Executor Director-Business at GHL Bank, who launched the product, said it was the first step in the bank's quest to bring innovative products to its clients, as it had promised at the inauguration of the bank.

He noted that the new product was a way to make home ownership more accessible to the average Ghanaian by taking care of the concerns of mortgage servicing during mortgage acquisition.

He explained that the main concern with mortgage applications was the potential borrower convincing the lender of his/her ability to service the loan while the financial institution tries to satisfy itself of the same.

'The ultimate evidence of this is being able to make monthly instalments so our challenge to the individual is: if you say you can make GHc100.00; prove it. Let's see you do it for period and if you can, it means it we're happy to advance the loan,' he said.

'This is just a first in a very long line of products we'll be coming out with,' he said, adding that, it was open to the public regardless of which developer they bought from, although the tenure was tailor-made for GHL Bank partner developer projects.

Mr Richmond Asante, Head, Mortgage Origination at GHL Bank, said the product was designed to enable applicants and prospective homeowners to demonstrate their commitment and ability to make scheduled payments to service a mortgage.

The first part of the product is the savings phase of up to 24 months, where applicants can make monthly contributions into, depending on the applicant's profile or type of product wanted. The next phase, which is the mortgage phase has a tenure of up to 15 years.

He said within the first phase of 12 to 24 months of savings, GHL Bank will be able to review the applicants' behaviour to confirm that they satisfy the savings requirement over the period and then the mortgage will be disbursed.

Aside enabling applicants to demonstrate repayment behaviour, he noted that the new product will also help to get a ready market for the Bank's upcoming projects such as the Appolonia and Regimanuel Gray's Akamanso project.