Via Adelaide Changole in bloomberg.com: The country hopes developing a secondary market for mortgages would allow banks to offer borrowers lower interest rates and improve the cost of home ownership, BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said at a conference in Johannesburg. In August, BlackRock signed an agreement with Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company — the state-owned equivalent of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the US — to develop the real estate finance market in the kingdom. “Spreads are much wider than if there was a securitization market,” Fink said. “It would be much narrower and the homeowners would benefit, so the cost of home ownership would go down.”
