Banks reserve cheap mortgages – Kommersant

From May 30, banks will begin to form an additional reserve for cheap mortgages issued since mid-March. Judging by the information on the websites of developers, offers of mortgage loans at extremely low rates persist. Experts believe that they will not disappear quickly, as the reasons that encourage players to create such tools remain relevant.

The Central Bank began to publish data on the market interest rate (RPS) – it is from it that the deviation of the total cost (FIC) of the mortgage will be calculated and, depending on the scale of “cheapness”, additional reserves will be accrued. The first data (for the reporting dates of 2023) appeared on the regulator’s website on May 2. The RPS calculation mechanism was known to the banks, so they had time to prepare. Increased provisions for mortgages issued after March 15 with deviations from the RPS will have to be accrued from May 30. At the beginning of May 2023, the RPS amounted to 10.84% ​​per annum (at the beginning of April – 10.67%).

Based on the RPS value at the beginning of May, it follows that for mortgages without state support, an additional reserve (in the amount of 50%) will be valid for mortgages at a rate of 0% to 5.42%, at rates from 5.43% to 8.67% additional reserve will be 30%, says Nadezhda Karavaeva, junior director for banking ratings at Expert RA. If a loan is issued under a program with state support (where the maximum rate is 8%), according to the expert’s calculations, an additional reserve of 50% will be accrued at rates in the range of 0-4.17%, in the amount of 30% – for loans issued at rates from 4 .18% to 6.672%.

In this case, we are talking about the full cost of the loan, data on which are not disclosed for individual banks. However, a simple search on the websites of developers indicates the preservation of mortgage programs at extremely low rates.

In particular, on the website of the developer “Airplane” there are proposals for state support, as well as standard mortgages from Alfa-Bank (from 0.1%) and MKB (from 0.01%). On the website of the developer A101, the rate of Bank Saint Petersburg is from 1.01%. Similar offers of banks are on the websites of other developers. There are still offers of mortgages “from 1 ruble per month”.

The Central Bank is fighting mortgages at extremely low rates, as it believes that it carries risks. Against the background of the rise in the mass popularity of mortgages at 0%, average rates in the primary market have fallen to 3.8% by mid-2022. They stayed below 4% for eight months in a row, but by April they were 5.57%.

Additional reserves that banks will accrue under the updated 590-P, starting from May 30, are not losses in the banking sector, but rather “returnable reserves,” Mikhail Matovnikov, head of the financial analytics center at Sberbank, believes. As mortgages are paid off, banks will gradually dissolve them, he notes.

Some banks have already voluntarily refused such loans. “Taking into account further comments and clarifications from the Bank of Russia, Sberbank has taken measures to minimize the impact of restrictions,” Sberbank assured. VTB has stopped issuing mortgages at ultra-low rates since April 1. Since the beginning of the year, Absolut Bank has not issued mortgage loans at a rate lower than the RPS.

There are also reasons why it is beneficial for developers and banks to keep such programs. “These are cases when the developer lends to the construction of an object, and the object is not being sold well, even the most principled banks in this case will be motivated to keep such a mortgage on the most problematic objects,” explains Mr. Matovnikov. Nevertheless, according to Alexander Shornikov, director of the retail risk department at Zenit Bank, the market is waiting for sales to decline at rates subsidized by developers.

In general, additional restrictions “will not be a verdict for the construction industry,” Mikhail Matovnikov believes. Now, despite everything, the demand for mortgages remains high, he says: “There was a drawdown in January, but this is a consequence of the record issuance in December. Mortgage demand quickly recovered in February-March, and now we are moving towards record mortgage lending.” This, among other things, was facilitated by the fact that market rates in the secondary market grew even stronger, there was a switch in demand to the primary market. Nominal wages are rising, the expert explains, “there is a certain level of optimism, and this is always combined with an increase in demand for mortgages.”

Olga Sherunkova