Peña announces home loan boost

Friday, 07 March 2014 00:10

BY MAURILIO SOTO

AND VÍCTOR MAYÉN

The News

MEXICO CITY – President Enrique Peña Nieto promised on Thursday that 2014 will be “the year of reactivation for the housing sector.”

In a press conference given from the presidential residence of Los Pinos, Peña Nieto said that the housing sector is strategic to the country’s development, and that institutions such as the National Housing Fund Institute (Infonavit), the Housing Fund for Socail Security and Services for Government Employees (Fovissste), National Peoples Housing Fund (Fonapo), the Federal Mortgage Society and the National Housing Commission (Conavi) will boost lending to more than 300 billion pesos ($23 billion).

“The investments destined for individual mortgage credits will increase by 255 billion pesos, an amount 18 percent higher than 2013,” Peña Nieto said, adding that the federal government will increase its contribution from eight to 12 billion pesos.

He also said that new mortgage finance programs and instruments will be created to promote more Infonavit-Fovissste co-financing for the acquisition of medium and residential properties, access to a second mortgage and home-improvement loans. These loans are extended to first-home buyers in Mexico.

Peña Nieto said that, in spite of the complicated situation the housing sector has seen during the past few years, the number of mortgage loans increased in 2013 by more than 10 percent. He added that more than 43,000 houses were added to the Central Housing Registry (RUV) in December 2013 alone, the largest monthly figure since 2011.

Achieving greater inter-institutional coordination, moving towards a model of sustainable urban growth, making sure more workers own land and providing dignified housing for all Mexicans were all goals that Peña Nieto said that his administration is working toward.

Peña Nieto also announced his administration’s goal to bring the country under the rule of one penal code, after unveiling his initiative for the law earlier this week.

The law, which consists of 49 articles, proposes to transition the country to an oral or adversarial judicial system, in which a defendant will be assumed innocent until evidence proves otherwise.

Peña Nieto added that one of the main components of the new law is confidentiality, in which information released during proceedings cannot be shared by those participating in the trial.