The Institut Català de Finances (ICF) is allocating 100 million euros to the new line of credit, and the Agència de l’Habitatge de Catalunya (AHC) is crediting a part of the interest rate, which will be fixed at 2%. The loans, under preferential terms, allow for 100% of the cost of investments for refurbishment, energy efficiency and accessibility to be covered within a maximum term of 15 years.
The Institut Català de Finances (ICF) and the Agència de l’Habitatge de Catalunya (AHC) have opened a new line of credit to fund investments for refurbishment, energy efficiency and accessibility by property owners' communities. In this regard, property owners' communities that need to carry out works will have access to credit under preferential terms, allowing them to cover the full amount of the investment.
This agreement between the ICF and the AHC represents an important change in access to credit for investments made by owners' communities, and fills a highly demanded hole in the entire sector.
Credit for property owners' communities, and not for the individual owners, has been a constant hindrance for communities that wanted credit to pay for refurbishment works. Up until now, the only way they could pay for the investments was to save for years and request the grants available, which only covered 30-40% of the expense, once the works were completed. In many cases, this meant that when the communities had saved enough to do the necessary works, they had already become worse by this point.
100 million euros to refurbish up to 10,000 residences in Catalonia
The new line of credit has 100 million euros allocated to it, and the loans will have a fixed rate of interest, which will be partly reduced by the AHC, set at 2%. The repayment period will be a maximum of 15 years. Furthermore, the operations will entail the assumption of risk by the AHC.
It is estimated that these loans could finance the refurbishment of up to 10,000 residences, with a minimum amount of 30,000 euros per community.