The mortgage market in the Russian Federation is developing steadily and has no signs of “overheating”, the quality of home loan portfolios remains at a high level. This was stated by Evgeny Dyachkin, Deputy Head of the Retail Business Department, Vice President of VTB, at the VII Russian Mortgage Congress.
He noted that the preferential program allowed to reduce the level of payment burden for the population, however, when deciding on its possible extension, it is worthwhile to pinpoint the situation in each separate region.
“We see that the level of payment discipline of mortgage borrowers in Russia remains the highest among all types of retail lending. The delinquency rate does not exceed 1 percent, which suggests that there are no signs of market overheating,” said Evgeny Dyachkin. This is facilitated by the general decline in loan rates – last year the average market rate dropped by a record 2 percentage points, as a result of which the average monthly mortgage payment also decreased (according to VTB statistics – from 30 to 25 percent).
An additional factor supporting the market in 2020, he said, was the loan vacation program implemented by the government and banks. That program, in the midst of the pandemic, supported thousands of mortgage borrowers who were able to get the needed respite to service their loans and then returned to a stable payment schedule. This allowed the banks to maintain the high quality of mortgage portfolios and, together with their clients, go through a difficult stage of financial turbulence without serious losses, Yevgeny Dyachkin emphasized.
The past 2020, according to him, was marked for the market by a “boom” in mortgage refinancing. “VTB remains the leader in this segment, last year we improved the terms of servicing loans for 114 thousand customers by 255 billion rubles. The share of refinancing has already exceeded a quarter of the total number of transactions. This year we do not expect any records in this segment – the majority of customers who have received loans Several years ago, at rates of about 10 percent, it has already reduced the burden on its budget. In addition, it is unlikely in the near future that the key rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation will decrease, which allows banks to reduce their interest rates on loans. Therefore, now is the best time to obtain a new loan at minimum rates – noted the vice president of VTB.