Such loans kept the same growth rate as in 2019, despite 2020 being a year affected by the pandemic.
In 2019, mortgage loan volume had gone up RON7.7 billion or 10.5% on 2018.
Mortgage loans in lei increased RON9.77 billion in 2020, while those in euros fell by some RON1.6 billion and mortgage loans in other currencies went down, too.
A boost to the increase in new mortgage loans may have come from the New Home (Noua Casa) government-backed scheme, which started at the beginning of the fall. The scheme doubled the loan cap for new homes to EUR140,000 but raised the minimum down payment from 5% to 15%.
Except for June 2020, new mortgage loans in lei stood at more than RON1 billion/month in January-November. The new mortgage loans in lei were also higher than in the year-earlier months except June and October.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)