Darkom, Jordan’s first housing loan insurance company, has signed an agreement with Union Bank.

This agreement is the second of its type to be signed by Darkom with a bank. This agreement will give community members regardless of their socio-economic background the opportunity to have long-term housing loans with competitive interest rates, flexible payment terms, reduced down payments, and reduced monthly installments, said an official spokesman.

The agreement was signed by board chairman of Union Bank Issam Salfiti and general manager of Darkom Waseem Wael Zurub.

Union Bank signed this agreement with Darkom based upon the latter’s demonstrated ability to facilitate innovative financial products that in turn provide all Jordanians with access to affordable housing solutions.

This also comes as a response to the Royal initiative of King Abdullah to secure houses for every citizen, specially the challenge currently facing Jordan of lowering the high average age of the borrower accessing first time home financing which is currently of 44 years old.

Union Bank has recently developed a new strategy for action in cooperation with global consultants McKinsey & Co aiming to reinforce the status of it’s competitive edge in the market and increase it's clients base, services and products it provides.

Union Bank has achieved high growth rates during the previous years. It has increased its capital in the fourth quarter of 2007 to JD95 million ($134.9 million). The bank has also increased the number of branches to 18 in total, spread throughout the Kingdom in addition to the branch of Ramallah.

“Darkom’s strategy is to make the ownership of real-estate properties attainable for all segments of the community regardless of their socio-economic background. This goal is achieved by allowing buyers to purchase real-estate properties through funding solutions that cover up to 90 per cent and 95 per cent in some special cases of the property’s real value and with payment terms that extend up to 30 years,” said Zurub.

It is important to note that Darkom, Jordan’s first housing loan insurance is a Jordanian public shareholding company, with a JD10 million capital and is licensed from the Jordanian Insurance Committee. Darkom is the first insurance company that is qualified by the Central Bank of Jordan to insure housing loans in Jordan. – TradeArabia News Service