MORTGAGE CREDITING STIRS UP, ARISES HOPES FOR MARKET RECOVERY

Mortgage credits keep growing in volume as bank offers sweeten, thus hopes for the stabilization of the real estate market arise, the Stroitelstvo Gradat weekly informs. After a record drop in the end of 2008, the average amount of mortgage credits granted in the second half of 2009 increased 7% to a total of BGN 103, 7 million, Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) data shows.

Interest rates on mortgage loans in euro maintain their levels since the beginning of the year, but marked a slight decline compared to their peak in March-April to 8, 7% for newly issued credits. Earlier this month, UniCredit Bulbank prognosticated that mortgage crediting will mostly contribute to the growth of crediting in the next two years and will register an average 5, 3% increase annually.

According to the BNB, the growth of mortgage loans slowed down to 8, 4% in 2009 compared to 38 – 64% in the past two years, but still marked the highest increase of all types of credits to the non-financial sector.
Interest rates on loans were reduced 0, 5% in January, credit intermediary CreditCenter announced.