People with disabilities: How does subsidized housing credit work?

Do you already know how this credit works? Go ahead and hire with the help of Poupança no Minuto. To learn more about how it works, what different conditions are, and the requirements to be met for this type of housing credit, read on.

People with disabilities have access to bonuses in home credit.

People with disabilities, due to special needs, have the right to different access conditions to housing credit. In this sense, if they meet the requirements, they can have access to a subsidized interest rate. For this, the disability must correspond to or be greater than 60%.

In order to prove incapacity, the client must present a multi-purpose medical certificate of incapacity. This is an official document that people with disabilities must carry with them, which determines the degree of incapacity calculated through the National Disability Table.

To determine the bonus, the difference between the reference rate for the calculation of bonuses (TRCB) and 65% of the European Central Bank reference rate (REPO) is calculated. If the contracted interest rate is lower than the TRCB, is calculated through the difference between the contracted interest rate and 65% of the REPO rate.

What are the necessary requirements to access this credit?  

It is important to note that to access the subsidized regime of housing credit, in addition to 60% proven disability by a medical certificate, other requirements are also on the table. Such as:

• The loan amount, or LTV (loan-to-value), cannot exceed 90% of the lower of two values: the appraisal value or the value of purchase, construction, or works.
• This financing amount cannot exceed 222,998.31 euros.
• The property cannot be owned by the borrower's ascendants or descendants.
• A mortgage must be established on the property, and it cannot be sold in the following 5 years (except in cases of unemployment, death, changes in the family or workplace).
• The credit must have one of the following purposes:

Acquisition, expansion, construction, and realization of works for conservation or improvement of permanent own housing (with acquisition of individual garage or parking space in collective garage).

Acquisition of land and construction of a property for permanent own housing (with the construction of an individual garage);  

- Ordinary, extraordinary, or improvement conservation works on the common parts of buildings to comply with the technical standards required by law, in order to improve accessibility to residential buildings, carried out by owners of individual fractions who occupy their permanent residence, with responsibility of the condominium owners.

Can I transfer my mortgage credit to a subsidized one?  

Firstly, it should be noted that banks are not required by law to grant this type of credit upfront. Although some Portuguese banks approve these loans.

However, know that if you already have a contracted home loan and the incapacity occurs after the signing of that contract, the bank cannot deny the conversion of your credit to the discounted one.

Therefore, yes: it is possible to transfer your home loan to the subsidized interest rate regime, if you have a degree of disability equal to or greater than 60% after contracting.

Why not ask for help from a credit intermediary?  

If you are looking to get a mortgage for people with disabilities, the credit intermediaries Poupança no Minuto can direct you to banks that approve this type of credit. They handle all the paperwork and documents, as well as communication with the banks and negotiation of conditions.

Also, if you want to convert your existing home loan to the subsidized regime, credit intermediaries can help. With a quick and cost-free service, the conversion becomes simple. Contact Poupança no Minuto to proceed with the process.