A limit has been added to benefits – Kommersant

New limits on the issuance of preferential mortgage loans have been distributed among banks, Kommersant has learned. In total, 1.9 trillion rubles were divided. Traditionally, the largest volume fell on the largest players, but new banks that had not previously taken part in it also entered the program.

At the end of last week, the operator of preferential mortgage programs JSC Dom.RF completed the distribution of the additionally allocated 1.9 trillion rubles. lending limit, the company told Kommersant. As a result, the total limit for “Preferential mortgage” with a rate of up to 8% increased from 4.5 trillion to 5 trillion rubles, for “Family mortgage” with a rate of up to 6% – from 3.1 trillion to 3.4 trillion rubles, for Far Eastern Mortgage at 2% – from 450 billion to 1.3 trillion rubles, for IT mortgages (up to 5%) – from 240 billion to 500 billion rubles. The government published a resolution to increase the limits at the end of August. Of the initial volume for preferential mortgages for new buildings, fulfillment was 91%, as of September 25, for family – 87%, for IT mortgages – 72.4%, and only for the Far East – less than 25%.

The largest volume went to Sberbank, which occupies a large share of the mortgage market: a total of 1.16 trillion rubles. The bank received the most under the Far Eastern program – 800 billion rubles. VTB expanded the final limit for all programs by 370 billion rubles. Both state banks – Sberbank and VTB – received the same additional limits for preferential, family and IT mortgages (181.6 billion rubles, 82 billion rubles and 91.9 billion rubles, respectively). Among the major players who received the limit are also Alfa Bank, Dom.RF Bank, PSB, Rosbank and a number of others. As Dom.RF clarified, several new players have joined the preferential programs, most of all in the Family Mortgage – the Asian-Pacific Bank, CB Rostfinance, Genbank.

“All funds are distributed among creditors in proportion to the volume of claims based on submitted applications,” Dom.RF explained. According to Svetlana Nekrasova, managing director of Dom.RF, the total volume of preferential mortgages exceeded 10 trillion rubles: “During the program, housing conditions have improved for more than 2.1 million families.”

Sberbank did not respond to Kommersant’s request. VTB believes that the additional limit “will help support client demand for government programs, which has increased against the backdrop of rising rates on market loans.” Against the backdrop of the current monetary policy and increasing rates on market programs, the share of loans with state support continues to grow, notes Ms. Nekrasova: they already account for 40% in number and more than half of the volume of all issued mortgages (51%). According to VTB forecasts, in October-December the share of state programs in issuances will reach 60%.

For preferential loans issued from September 20, the conditions have been tightened (see Kommersant on September 13): the down payment has increased from 15% to 20%. According to the deputy director of the group of financial institution ratings of the NKR agency, Yegor Lopatin, this is unlikely to lead to a decrease in demand. The price parameters of loans have also deteriorated. As evidenced by the monitoring of mortgage rates by Dom.RF (carried out for the largest market participants), in the second half of September banks massively increased interest rates on government programs – an increase in the range of 0.3–0.7 percentage points (pp). As a result, the weighted average rate on preferential and family mortgages increased by 0.4 percentage points, to 7.9% and 5.9%, respectively.

“If earlier banks willingly shared their income, providing a discount to the rate under preferential programs, now, against the backdrop of a fall in the margins of market mortgages due to rising rates and tightening regulation, the opportunities for bankers have clearly narrowed,” says Sergei Gordeiko, chief expert at Rusipoteka. However, preferential mortgages remain a source of guaranteed interest income for banks. Since the demand for standard programs is expected to decrease, the expert notes, one of the significant and reliable ways to make money on a mortgage is to issue preferential loans.

Olga Sherunkova