These are the FLISP application requirements

Article summary

• You qualify for FLISP if your income ranges from R3501 to R22 000.
• You must be a first-time buyer and you must not have received a government housing subsidy before.
• You no longer need home loan approval before applying for FLISP.

Homeownership is now a reality for low-income earners, thanks to FLISP (Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme).

This is a government subsidy that makes home loans more affordable. It can be used to cover the deposit, or it can be paid into the home loan.

So how do you qualify for FLISP? Here are the criteria.

FLISP application requirements

First and foremost, your income must range from R3 501 to R22 000.

The other criteria are:

• You must be a South African citizen with permanent residency in South Africa.
• You must not have received a government housing subsidy before.
• You must be married or cohabiting OR single with financial dependents.
• You must be over 18 years old.
• You must not have owned a fixed residential property before.

Do I need a home loan before I can apply for the subsidy?

This used to be the case, but as of April 2022, you no longer need to secure home loan approval before you apply for FLISP.

Other financing options are now available, such as:

• the beneficiary’s pension/provident fund loan
• a co-operative or community-based savings scheme, i.e. stokvel
• the Government Employees Housing Scheme
• any other Employer-Assisted Housing Scheme
• an unsecured loan
• an Instalment Sale Agreement or Rent-to-own Agreement

This removes one of the major barriers to entry for potential applicants. Being a low-income earner makes it difficult to get a home loan approved, so it makes sense to have the FLISP subsidy available BEFORE you apply for the home loan.

Having the subsidy on-hand means the bank will be more likely to approve your home loan. Using the subsidy as a deposit also increases the chance of home loan approval, and lowers your interest rates.

You meet the criteria, now how do you apply?

You can apply for FLISP with the assistance of your financial institution or a home loan comparison service.

If you apply with ooba Home Loans, you can see the process laid out below:

The process usually takes around 7 days. If you are approved, the subsidy will be paid out to you by The National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC).

At ooba Home Loans we can guide you through the application process and help you organise the necessary paperwork. It’s worth the effort for the chance to own your home, which until now might have seemed a distant dream to those who fall within the lower income brackets.