Influence of asset quality, capital adequacy, loan structure and macro-economic variables on financing of mortgage products by commercial banks in Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to determine the influence of asset quality, capital adequacy, loan structure and macro-economic variables on Financing of mortgage products by commercial banks in Kenya. The study used a descriptive research design targeting 196 bank managers including, relationship managers, head of mortgage/retail sales, head of documentation, credit manager, head ofdocumentation, head of finance, and finally head of legal. Data collected was coded and cleaned before undertaking necessary analysis that comprised descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics was done by means of frequency tables, mean, standard deviations, charts and figures, while inferential statistics included ANOVA, regression and correlation analysis. The results show that asset quality, capital adequacy, loan structure, macroeconomic variables jointly influence 81.5% of the mortgage financing. Further they were positively and statistically significant in predicting the variation in mortgage financing (F (4, 147) = 161.65, p<.000). The study recommends that banks should consider their credit portfolio in making decisions on financing mortgage products. More so, banks should favour adjustable-rate mortgages as opposed to fixed-rate mortgages and that banks should not charge high loan fee for mortgage products. Finally, it is recommended that banks should support the government housing finance systems by offering various mortgage loan flexibilities to developers of affordable housing products and that it should formulate policy and procedure on mortgages that can support commercial banks in financing mortgage products.