Oman Housing Bank

MUSCAT — Oman has announced a significant hike in housing loan limits for low income families and raised the salary ceiling for those eligible to apply for such financial assistance from the government, as the Sultanate yesterday joined other countries in marking world and Arab housing day.

The increase in the upper limit for loans — from RO15,000 to RO20,000 — was made public in a statement issued here by the Ministry of Housing. The new ceiling on monthly salary for applicants is RO400, compared with RO300 earlier. The government also enhanced its non-refundable housing assistance to social security families to RO15,000 from RO10,000.

The ministry said the new decisions were in the wake of the rise in prices of building materials and the increase in salaries of government employees at the beginning of the year. The announcement coincided with yesterday's Arab and world housing day. This year's theme for the former, observed every year on the first Monday of October, is 'Housing is a Human Right'. Word Housing Day is marked on October 1 every year.

The Sultanate has made notable achievements in the field of housing, especially in the backdrop of rapid urbanisation taking place in the country. A highlight has been the focus placed on building residential units with the least cost, properly balancing facilities with citizens' needs and adhering to traditional Omani architecture.

All housing projects, therefore, seek to blend the economic, social and historical aspects of the country and its people, placing emphasis on the country's special ecological situation and environment, a spokesman for the ministry explained, pointing out that the government had laid down comprehensive rules and regulations for such schemes. The authorities had also drawn up policy guidelines for distribution of plots to citizens to construct houses, he added.

"Providing support to social housing schemes for those with limited income has been one of the Sultanate's pivotal housing policies, by offering them necessary financial assistance," the spokesman said.

Hundreds of families in the different governorates and regions have benefited from such schemes and royal grants. Last year, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said announced a grant to build 1,229 'social' houses in a number of wilayats of the Sharqiyah and Dhakhliyah regions and the Dhofar Governorate in 2006.

The beneficiaries were individuals with monthly incomes not exceeding RO129 and families covered by the social security programme. The number of families that benefited from the housing assistance scheme so far this year is 185.

Meanwhile, work is in progress on 1,399 houses in various parts of the country following orders given by Sultan Qaboos during his annual 'Meet the People' tour last year. The cost of the project is RO47.8 million. And in a gesture marking the advent of the holy month of Ramadan last month, Sultan Qaboos issued a grant writing off housing loans availed of by people with limited income from the Housing Bank. The beneficiaries, totalling nearly 400, were those with monthly incomes not exceeding RO300, and the amount involved was RO5.2 million.