The newly elected president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has launched a plan to build a million homes people can buy with zero-interest mortgages.
Her “Housing and Regularisation Programme” aims to help disadvantaged groups including one-parent families, the young and the old, and indigenous communities.
She first announced the plan during her inaugural speech in October.
The government will invest $30bn in the scheme, which starts next year with the construction of 165,000 homes.
“We are going to build at least 1 million homes in this six-year term, and also 1 million homes that we are going to regularise, that is the objective,” she said.
She said the National Workers’ Housing Fund Institute would build half the homes for disadvantaged groups, while the National Housing Commission would build half for the rest of the population.
Financing will be provided by the Welfare Financing Agency, a new government-backed lender.
She said Mexicans would have the “right to a roof”, unlike in other countries where housing is built for profit.
The zero-interest mortgages would have 30-year terms, said Rodrigo Chávez, director of the National Housing Commission.
Edna Vega, Mexico’s urban development minister, noted that the programme was expected to create about 6.1 million direct and 9.2 million indirect jobs.
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