Mortgage crisis forces Lebanon couples to postpone their weddings

As many as 30 per cent of Lebanese couples who planned to marry this summer have canceled their weddings following the central bank’s decision to stop housing loans.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported President of the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI), Waleed Moussa, as saying that “every threat to the real estate sector affects 70 professions related to it including workers in construction, carpentry, builders and traders in raw materials and others, leading to a major crisis in the Lebanese economy.”

“The crisis started with the poor economic conditions following the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri last year. The Banque du Liban itself suffered further collapse in these situations, in addition to the global interest rate which increased by 11 per cent, therefore it had to stop supporting interest rates.”

READ: Hariri retracts resignation

“The bank was playing a role that should have been played by the state and the finance ministry. Maybe it would have been better for the bank to coordinate more with the finance ministry to avoid this sudden halt and its backlash,” he added.

Moussa said the state must establish a housing ministry to study citizens’ needs and assess the country’s ability to meet them.