YEREVAN.- The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) and Armenia-based Ardshininvestbank signed a loan agreement on Sunday aiming at provision of additional resources for mortgage lending in Armenia.
Ardshininvestbank will draw on funds amounting to $8 million during the next six months and extend affordable long-term residential mortgage loans, including jumbo loans with a maximum amount of $200,000.
Mher Grigoryan, Chairman of the Management Board at Ardshininvestbank, said real estate construction, which once strongly supported the economic growth in Armenia, suffered greatly through the recent crisis.
“In this regard, it is also the responsibility of the banking sector to stimulate the real estate and mortgage lending markets. This facility with the BSTDB will allow Ardshininvestbank to assertively expand its mortgage loan”, he added.
According to him, while the speculative demand for residential real estate has significantly subsided, the fundamentals show strong demand still exists, as the real estate market remains obsolete and densely populated, with often 2 families living in small apartments.
“Short-term and high interest rate mortgage loans are the main obstacles to expansion of the scope and scale of such lending. With this project, we are going to improve the situation, solving some of the existing issues, particularly by making mortgage loans more affordable and accessible in Armenia,” said Grigoryan.
Ardshininvestbank is a bank with 49 branches throughout the Republic of Armenia, six branches in the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and a representation office in Paris. For further information please visit www.ashib.am or call 59-04-04.
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries.
