The value of the 75,000 First Home loans extended by BCR and BRD amounts to 13 billion lei, while the overall state-guaranteed mortgage loans were worth RON22 billion. The First Home scheme kept retail lending afloat during the crisis and came to account for half in the stock of mortgage loans granted by banks in Romania, but now a rising number of clients are shifting back to standard loans.
“Fewer and fewer clients are interested in the First Home scheme. In the first three months of this year, demand for such loans was even half the level of the year earlier period,” said Anca Bidian, chief executive officer of credit brokerage Kiwi Finance.
BCR, Romania’s biggest bank, granted around 40,000 First Home loans, worth RON6.6 billion, while the number of loans extended by BRD reached 35,000. However, the value of the loans granted by BRD was higher, of around RON6.7 billion.
The average value of a First Home loan granted by BRD in the past six years amounted to RON190,000, being topped only by Alpha Bank, according to bank data.
Raiffeisen Bank ranks next by the number of First Home loans granted in the past six years, with 13,000 loans totally worth RON1.9 billion (EUR450 million).
For this year, the guarantee cap for First Home was set at RON2.5 billion (EUR550 million). Thus, banks will be able to grant another 30,000 mortgage loans, around 5,000 more than in 2014.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)