AS OF this morning FirstCaribbean International Building Society will be offering the lowest mortgage rates in the island.
Up to Friday, FirstCaribbean was tied with Victoria Mutual Building Society in offering mortgages at 13.5 per cent, which was the lowest rate in the island. But the company has effectively shaved half a percentage point off their rates and will now lend money at 13 per cent.
"We will be giving back half of one per cent to the customer," said Lenworth Tracey, senior manager for mortgage finance at the building society. The half a per cent saving will be credited to a saving account at 9 per cent and held for up to three years on behalf of the mortgage borrower.
The special rate is what FirstCaribbean offers to first-time home purchasers and the half a per cent saving runs for the life of the mortgage.
MONHLY PAYMENTS
On a $3 million loan, the monthly repayment would have been $34,363 before today, he said. Under the new terms, a borrower would repay $33,186 per month and have $1,176 credited to their account monthly.
For a typical mortgage lasting 360 months, the benefit to the borrower would be $423,000, including the interest, he said.
"We will pay you interest on the interest we have given back to you," he said. "We are encouraging all individuals who are considering home ownership to seek to examine the FirstCaribbean offer."
Industry insiders say the interest rate is a key component of a mortgage loan, but there are other issues to be considered, such as the amount of the financing need that the mortgage covers. Some institutions cover up to 95 per cent of the borrowing requirement.
The offer starts runs through to August 31 and has been issued throughout the Caribbean. The building society is a subsidiary of FirstCaribbean International Bank which operates in 16 regional countries.
