Banker S.A. September 2013 | Page 22

RURAL HOUSING LOAN FUND THE FINANCIAL MUSCLE BEHIND INCREMENTAL RURAL HOUSING What is the Rural Housing Loan Fund? Rural Housing Loan Fund (RHLF) is a South African Government owned entity established in 1996 with the mandate to facilitate access to incremental housing finance by low income earners who want to improve their housing conditions in rural areas and small towns in all provinces. RHLF operates as a wholesale finance institution and facilitates access to housing finance nationally through a network of housing finance lenders. These intermediaries access funds from RHLF and on-lend to individual borrowers throughout the country. RHLF only works with: • intermediary lenders that are NCR registered and who are serving the general public; • stokvels, cooperatives, and/or community-based organisations who lend to their members only. Borrowers use loans accessed from retail lenders for the following purposes: • to build a new house, • to improve the quality of their home, • to extend their existing homes, • to buy residential land, • to connect to services, such as electricity and water, • to improve sanitation conditions, and • fence their homes – security. RHLF Performance Since establishment up to the end of March 2013, RHLF has: • facilitated 370 524 loans for low-income earners to improve their living conditions in rural areas; • disbursed more than R1.1 billion to the incremental rural housing finance market. In the last five years to March 2013, RHLF has achieved the following: • annual disbursements to intermediaries • number of loans People who benefit Our intermediary lenders enable RHLF to reach all nine provinces of South Africa! Banker SA_RHLF.indd 40 2013/10/17 11:19 AM