It is still not clear how the total amount for housing loan subsidies for 2018 has been completely used up in just one month but as a result of that, banks are no longer accepting house loan applications leaving a large group of Lebanese in disarray, not knowing what to do next.

In simpler terms, there are plenty of people who signed agreements with real estate developers whereas they pay them monthly installments up until the developer hands them the necessary papers to apply for BDL’s subsidized housing loan and therefore finalize the purchase of the house. I did that myself and applied to the BDL housing loan as soon as I had the necessary papers and got my apartment.

However, and since the quota was completely used up for 2018 in just 1 month, neither customers are able to apply for loans to buy apartments nor developers can sell their apartments except for cash or non-subsidized loans with high interests. What’s even worse is that those who are already paying installments will have to keep doing that without any guarantee of getting the necessary loan amount any time soon, and need to revisit their legal agreements to make sure they don’t get screwed over.

There are still no news on increasing the ceiling for 2018 beyond the previously allocated $500 million but there are hundreds of applications on hold and thousands of people waiting to apply. I heard yesterday a video claiming that the reason the quota was reached was that the government miscalculated the wages scale by 1 billion dollars (WTF) and that it might take a couple of years for the subsidized loans to return but I’m not sure how reliable his info is.