So there is an organisation calling itself the Caleb Trust that has sought to capitalise on the value proposition on offer from National Building Society. The only problem is that this organisation is doing this illegally. The Caleb Trust has decided to use two powerful things to prey on the Zimbabwean public: social media and the hunger that Zimbabweans have to own properties of their own.
Of late Zimbabweans have shown themselves to be quite gullible to anything that is peddled through social media. Even the most ridiculous of stories is believed as long as there is ‘evidence on WhatsApp to back it up.’ The Caleb Trust did not have to try too hard, all they needed was to promote the sale of their ‘houses’ in Cleverhills Harare on digital platforms. They are offering loans for the purchase of these properties apparently underwritten by National Building Society.
The problem is that NBS has since released a statement distancing themselves from Caleb Trust. I tried to track down who Caleb Trust are and who they are associated with and I haven’t been successful yet. They don’t seem to be associated with Cleverhill Investments either. I don’t know what the catch is or if indeed there is one but hey to claim an untruth as fact raises flags in the very least.
It’s a great thing that Zimbabweans aspire to own houses of their own the way they do. This dream however, has been manipulated countless times. People have been sold non existent ‘stands,’ they have been sold houses that are not even on sale by clever talking con artists particularly in Harare.
The originators of the Caleb Trust circular, whether they are really called Caleb Trust or not, did their homework well. They chose NBS to be their finance partner in this fictional narrative because currently NBS has the most affordable mortgage finance in the Zimbabwean market. Also National Building Society has unabashedly announced that they want to deliver 10,000 houses to the Zimbabwean market before the year is out. That gave opportunity to the Caleb Trust communique didn’t it?
What really is on offer from NBS though?
We have covered this quite much before. As a summary here are your options:
- Your employer could partner NBS so that you and fellow employees can access home ownership credit at zero deposit.
- Your pension scheme or similar subscription scheme could also do the above.
- You can borrow to build on your ‘stand.’ Provided you have title to that property, deposit could be waived too.
- You can borrow to build your house even when you don’t have titled land yet but in this case your deposit will be 15% of total borrowing.
- You can gradually save towards the deposit through an NBS savings account product
- Interest on borrowings is 9.5% per year if you are employed and are building in the high density suburbs across the country or 11.5% otherwise.
- Repayment period is up to 25 years depending on how close you are to the retirement age.
You need to open an account with NBS first before you can access the loans. Leave your details here and they will contact you and open your account.
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