PM: Russia’s mortgage market grows more than 40% since Jan 1

GORKI, Moscow Region, Aug 1 (PRIME) -- Russia’s mortgage market has grown by more than 40% since the beginning of 2016, but it is still important to continue working on cutting mortgage rates, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday at a meeting of a presidential council for strategic development and priority projects.

“The mortgage market growth has exceeded 40% since the beginning of 2016. We should cement these positive tendencies. That’s why it is very important to increase affordability of mortgages. Interest rates on the mortgage market have fallen as of today, and we should keep this direction in focus of our common attention,” he said.

“It is possible to make mortgage cheaper if we develop the market for mortgage securities with guarantees of our agency actively. I hope that the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending will continue this work on crediting together with the Bank of Russia.”

The state program for mortgage support also allows individuals to buy new housing at a rate of no higher than 12%, while the remaining part of the rate is subsidized by the government. “The budget allocated 2.1 billion rubles for the program in 2015, and 16.5 billion rubles more are envisaged this year, of which 7.7 billion rubles have already been allocated,” he said.

The government should also think about developing stimuli for improving the rent housing market in Russia. The share of rented housing in markets of many developed countries stands at 30–60%, and it is even higher in some largest cities. About a third of 23 million Russian families are ready to study renting apartments if the market is transparent, Medvedev said.

“This shows us that this format is in demand as a solution of housing problems and that this sphere is promising,” he added.

(67.0512 rubles – U.S. $1)

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