Photo: PixabayHousing loan demand is constantly increasing, with a rise of more than 16 percent in only one year. Currently, 145,290 Serbian citizens are repaying these loans, according to the Association of Serbian Banks. The overall debt for all loans of the population, which amounts to around 11.3 billion euros, 41.7 percent goes to loans for the purchase of apartments and restoration, according to ekapija.com.
Along with the increase in demand for this type of loan, as shown by the latest credit report of the Association of Serbian Banks from December 2021, the delay in repayment of these loans is decreasing. It presently ammounts to 0.9 percent.
According to the Association, the average amount of overall home loans is 3.7 million dinars, 8,000 new loans more, in regards to a year ago, are presently being repaid, stable monetary policy, NBS measures for the population during the epidemic and cheap interest rates, which are at an all-time low - almost half of what they were a decade ago, all contributed to the increase of interest in these loans.
While at the end of 2021, the inhabitants of Serbia repaid around 554 billion dinars, a year earlier, the debt on the basis of housing loans was around 474 billion. In just one year, about 80 billion more has been borrowed to repay the housing loans. Many banks have reduced their participation to 10 percent for the first property, which, according to experts, has contributed to growing interest in these loans.
According to the National Bank of Serbia, assessments of bank credit activities reveal good repayment of home loans and steady demand growth. Borrowing conditions that are favorable, i.e. interest rates that have been moving at historically low levels, are contributing to the growth of demand for house loans. According to the Association of Serbian Banks, Euro-indexed house loans, which are the most frequent in the framework of housing loans, were approved in 2021 at interest rates ranging between 2.5 and 2.6 percent, which is twice less than as in 2012 and 2013.
As they say, the bigger realization of housing loans was reflected in the growth of disposable income of citizens, higher demand for real estate and continuous growth in the market of apartments, as well as NBS measures for the population during the pandemic. One of them is that citizens are allowed to extend the repayment period of existing housing loans for a maximum of five years, and the share for the purchase of the first residential real estate was reduced from 20 percent to 10 percent, with a reduction in the minimum degree of construction.
Based on the data from the sales contracts of the RGA, in the fourth quarter of 2021, 13 percent of all real estate was paid from credit funds, which is one percent less compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.
Compared to the previous year, the percentage of real estate payments from loans on the real estate market in the fourth quarter was lower by one percent. Apartments are most often paid from loans. In the fourth quarter of 2021, 30 percent of apartments in Serbia were paid with loans.
Source: ekapija.com
