Primary residence protection extended by four months

The current legal debt settlement framework for outstanding loans and mortgages given to loanees on guarantee of their primary residence, is being extended to April 30, 2020, the finance ministry announced on Saturday.

The extension gives debtors an additional four months on top of the previous government’s December 31 deadline, "to protect their first home and those who have already entered the platform and have not submitted their application – to complete the application in due time and take advantage of this framework of protection," reads a ministerial statement.

The system has already been in operation for 23 weeks, having seen some 53,539 users enter the platform, 35,670 have started their applications, of whom 972 have been relayed to relevant banks – which have sent back proposals on some 224 applications and have accepted 50, while some 21 citizens have so far been granted state subsidies.