Is he (J. Mwangi) to offer mortgage thro' HF where EB owns close to 25% or via EB itself. With 5% ownership of EB and over 20yrs at the helm, why can't he retire? He can try governor of (is it) Murang'a county.

Subprime mortgages:
So far, financial institutions have been careful about who they lend to to ensure that people take mortgages they can afford to repay. The US problems were partly caused by greedy bankers who were hawking loans to all and sundry irrespective of ability to repay.
If his dream of lending to people who are on a salary of 20 k is realized without waiting for policy adjustments in the housing industry to deal with all the problems facing the housing industry like
- Speculation on land (which someone here has said accounts for 40%) of the cost
- Infrastructure development (which developers are now forced to do)
- Financing structure
the default rate in such loans will go UP. Other thing he said is EB makes its money on large volumes. Wondering how this would play out on the property market. “Fuel” a construction boom in that segment of the market to make sure maaaaany affordable houses are built, and then lend out to people on a 20k salary. Can only lead to irresponsible lending. Read somewhere that “mortgage” literally translated is something like “death lock”. Sure trigger to problems in that industry.
Read the thread on the “housing bubble” for lots of speculation about a burst.

Mortgages sio mkate.
Equity will burn if its not careful

It's common sense that Equity do not have the experience that HF & S&L have in the Mortgage industry.
One sure way of going to the grave is for Equity to overlook its sister firm HF and take the plunge!
They have to stick to their core business, otherwise known as FOCUS!

Underestimate Equity Bank (JM) at your own peril. HF is already in their stable so they can draw on that experience.

If you read the BD story on the proposed British American Investments listing, it may give you some insights into some of the thinking going on in the Equity Bank/Housing Finance/ British American Investments consortium. I would not bet against these guys, UNLESS I have incontrovertible proof that they will fail and that will be pretty hard to come by.

I think there are so many pessimists here in wazua.First they should realise that what is imposible does not exist but not to say that Equity will burn even when they dont know whether there is some research commisioned by Equity to find the viability of the business in morgages involving low income earners.

When Equity launched their ledger fee FREE account,so many people were shouting on top of synagouges (spelling) that Equity would crash land.I was part of those people and was happily banking with Barclays and being frozen at every opportunity.Time passed fast and had to joint people in Equity by opening an account.
Mwangi's point is that if you earn something,then you can own something however little.ie If you earn handsomely,you can afford big mortgage in karen and the likes but if you earn 20K,you can afford mortgauge in Isinya and the likes.

So,its as simple as knowing your market other than dismissing anything and everything by your gut feelings.

(no pun intended)

for it not to fall below 25.

This should not worry you too much. If the market (NSE) recovers, I will be expecting Equity to bounce back big as well. I am looking forward to buying at these prices!

With subprime, most of those financial institutions sold those worthless backed financial instruments to people who never understood the American mortgage market & they never had the backing of an experienced developer, an aggressive fundraiser, an experienced mortgage lender & a large branch network.
With Equity, they do have a base to start with, a good branch network, an experienced developer & funds to seal it up. The bargaining power that these guys will have will be huge. The only thing i do believe will happen is that they'll help to burst this real estate bubble

After books close 20bob