An Assessment of Mortgage Loan Uptake among Bank Staff: A Survey of Commercial Banks in Nakuru Town

Shelter is among the most basic human needs and home ownership is one way of satisfying this need. However, home ownership requires substantial resources in terms of time and financial resources. Commercial bank staff enjoys discounted financial products in relation to mortgage facilities. This study sought to find out the mortgage facility uptake among the bank staff within commercial banks at Nakuru Town. The specific objective of the study was to establish the effect of personal finance commitments on mortgage facility uptake. The study population consisted of bank staff within Nakuru Town and utilized stratified random sampling method. The descriptive research design was employed in the study. Data was analysed using SPSS version 21 and presented in tables. The findings indicated that, while a high percentage of staff were eligible for mortgage (58.7 %), there were factors hindering the mortgage uptake; serving probation period (10.7 %), contract employees (17.3 %), salary over commitments (6.7 %) and little time towards retirement (13.3 %). Personal financial commitments such as short-term financial commitments, salary over commitments, taking care of siblings, young family commitments, and reservations towards long-term financial commitment influenced the ability to take up mortgage facilities. The study made the following recommendations. The bank staff in entry-level jobs should be encouraged to take the mortgage facilities early on in the career paths, as it is cheaper for them. Bankers earning lower amounts than the bank top and middle management should be encouraged to take up mortgage facility based on their salary levels. There is need to educate bankers more on the financial advantages they enjoy compared to the ordinary bank customers in relation to mortgage to encourage higher uptake of the facilities. The bankers should be educated on prudent financial management to enable them to take up meaningful credit facilities such as mortgage facilities.