Sber announced a reduction in investors after revising the terms of preferential mortgages

The first deputy chairman of Sber, Kirill Tsarev, said that after the terms of preferential mortgages were revised in January, mainly investor clients began to enter into transactions less often. The number of ordinary home buyers, according to him, has remained virtually unchanged, he said RBC.

“After changing the conditions, we see that if the apartment was really needed, the client is looking for certain options on how to purchase it anyway. If this was more of an investment issue, a desire to get something from the interest spreads that arose, then perhaps it would be easier to refuse this deal,” said Mr. Tsarev.

He added that there are “not many” individuals who received approval for a preferential mortgage in 2023, but did not manage to enter into a deal before the new conditions came into force. He did not provide specific data.

The preferential mortgage program, as the deputy chairman of Sber said, has actually become unprofitable for banks. Kirill Tsarev explained this by changes in down payment requirements and the amount of compensation for bank income from the state, as well as the appearance of premiums on risk coefficients from the Central Bank. In these conditions, he called the transition to a scheme for issuing mortgages with commissions from developers “rational and justified.”

In January 2024, Sber, VTB and Alfa Bank introduced commissions for developers under preferential mortgage programs. Because of this, developers began to refuse to work with some banks or increase the cost of housing. On January 15, the Bank of Russia called charging a commission from developers for issuing preferential mortgages risky, since this reduces market transparency and weakens competition.

Read more about the opposition of banks and developers in the Kommersant article. “Interest has accrued on benefits”.

Petr Buzlaev