The Ministry of Housing, under its first home grant assistance program, has assisted close to 450 households in the last financial year.

Permanent Secretary Sanjeeva Perera says the government in the last financial year made a record payment of $7.5m.

Perera says the aim of the initiative is to encourage people to continue investing in homeownership.

“It’s been a very good program. That’s why we continued on the same basis in the current financial year as well. If anything, the demand and the response have been higher this year. We just finished five months of this financial year, and so far we have registered close to two hundred households.”

Perera says anybody with an annual household income of $50,000 or less can apply for a $30,000 grant for the construction of their first home.

He adds that if someone is purchasing the house, they can apply for a $15,000 grant.

The Permanent Secretary says since its interception in 2014, the Ministry has assisted close to 3400 households.