The Reserve Bank of Fiji has changed its policy on local borrowing by non-residents allowing overseas based businesses more latitude to borrow from within Fiji.

The RBF said under the new guidelines non-resident controlled companies may now apply for exempted status which would allow the non-resident individual investing in projects in Fiji to borrow up to 75% of their funding locally under certain conditions.

The conditions include that the project would have been 25% complete when the lending policy was implemented in January this year, only the stage in progress will be exempted and applicants must provide documentary evidence of completion.

Other policy changes announced by the RBF will allow non residents to borrow locally up to 60% to build new residences and can locally source up to $100,000 for maintenance and repairs of properties.

However, the RBF stresses that non-resident individuals will still be required to fund acquisition of properties entirely from abroad.