‘Pre-war’ mortgage boom in Tatarstan: housing accounts for more than a third of all consumer loans
Tatarstan residents took out mortgage loans for 16,4 billion in February 2022, while delinquency amounted to only 1,3 billion rubles
The authorities have announced a reduction in the interest rate on a preferential mortgage to 9%. Developers hope that this will revive the housing market, where sales have sagged since April. Meanwhile, according to the Central Bank, Tatarstan is one of the leaders in mortgage lending not only in the Volga Federal District, but also in the country. In February, 5,153 mortgage loans worth more than 16,4 billion rubles were issued in the republic. The share of mortgages in the total volume of loans issued to citizens in the region constantly increases, while a reverse trend is developing across the country. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
Mortgage rate cut will revive the market
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin have instructed the relevant departments to prepare documents as quickly as possible to extend the preferential mortgage with a new rate until the end of the year. Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin also expressed concern.
“I see that mortgage has collapsed in the last two weeks. Just collapsed. At first, it was moving due to previously approved loans, and recently it has collapsed, despite all the measures of the proposed support," the deputy prime minister stated.
In the coming days, the interest rate on a preferential mortgage on new buildings will be reduced from 12% to 9%. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing of Russia Nikita Stasishin.
“What's the focus today? First of all, it is mortgage. President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin instructed to change the rate on a preferential mortgage. In the coming days, it will be 9% for all categories of citizens who want to buy housing at the construction stage in all territories and regions of our country," Stasishin said.
As the developers interviewed by Realnoe Vremya noted, this move by the authorities will be a positive signal for the revival of the market, which sank sharply in April.
“The reason for this is clear: the mortgage was at 7% per annum, and now it is 12%. We reassure ourselves that the loan amount has been increased, which is good, but the rates have still risen sharply. In March, everyone tried to buy apartments, so that month there have been quite good indicators, and in April — naturally worse. But when there are such drastic changes in the market, people need to accept the new reality, and I think sales will revive by June," Iskander Yusupov, the deputy director general of Unistroy, shared his opinion.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank published data on the housing mortgage lending market for February of this year. The regulator notes that in the whole country during this period, there was an increase in the number and volume of mortgage loans compared to the previous month, the increase was provided solely by ruble loans. Credit organisations provided 135,7 thousand of residential mortgages for a total of 476,9 billion rubles against 95 thousand residential mortgages in the amount of 327 billion rubles in January. Compared to the same indicator last year, the volume of loans granted in February of this year increased by 18,2%.
Tatarstan is in the lead
The largest mortgage volume was expectedly issued in Moscow, Moscow Oblast, and St. Petersburg, the smallest — in Ingushetia. Tatarstan has become the leader in the Volga Federal District: in February, 5,153 mortgage loans worth more than 16,4 billion rubles were issued, which on average corresponds to the indicators of 2021, when there was a mortgage boom. These figures, by the way, are ahead of many million-plus cities.
Tatarstan is also the first in the Volga Federal District in terms of the number of mortgages secured by the rights of claim under shared-equity construction contracts (DDU) — 1,641 of them were issued in the amount of over 4 billion rubles. Although the figures are higher than in January of this year (1,167), they did not reach the peak values of December 2021 — 2,122 mortgages worth more than 7,5 billion rubles.
The average mortgage interest rate in comparison with 2021 in Tatarstan increased from 7,39% to 7,91% in January-February. By this indicator, the republic entered the four regions of the Volga Federal District, where it is the lowest. The minimum rate is noted in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) — 5,13%, the maximum — in Karachay-Cherkessia — 9,9%.
The interest rate under DDU in Tatarstan was 5,31%, with the national average of 5,94%.
The average mortgage size is also gradually increasing — in February in Russia it reached 3,5 million rubles (plus 26,5% compared to last year). The largest loans are taken in Moscow (7,2 million), Moscow Oblast (5,3 million) and St. Petersburg (4,9 million), which are distinguished by the highest cost of housing. The smallest average loan size is in Chechnya — 1,2 million rubles.
Share of mortgages in the total volume of loans in Tatarstan is growing
Along with the growth in the number of loans issued, the debt on them is also growing. Throughout the country, it amounted to 12,4 trillion rubles, an increase of 2,2% over the month, and by 27,1% compared to the same date a year earlier. In Tatarstan, the debt amounts to more than 336,4 billion rubles and has been steadily growing since last year. This is the highest indicator in the Volga Federal District.
The maximum annual growth rate of mortgage debts was observed in the Chechen Republic (61,1%), the minimum — in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (11,3%). Moscow (14,1%) and Moscow Oblast (8,8%) still have the largest share in the structure of total mortgage debts, and the Republic of Ingushetia (0,02%) has the smallest.
The mortgage debt under DDU in Tatarstan has also been increasing since March 2021, in February this figure reached almost 75 billion rubles, becoming the largest in the district. This trend is typical for the whole country, the total amount of debt under the DDU is 2,9 trillion rubles (against 2,2 trillion rubles a year earlier).
The indicator of overdue mortgage loans in Tatarstan amounted to 1,3 billion rubles, slightly increasing compared to January and December. This is the second place after Bashkiria in the Volga Federal District, and on a national scale the republic is not even in the top 10. According to the Central Bank, overdue debts in the country as a whole for the year decreased by 0,3% to 64 billion rubles.
Mortgage delinquency under DDU contract in Tatarstan is 55 million rubles — since the beginning of the year it has been growing slightly, and compared to last year it is noticeably decreasing.
In total, the share of mortgages in the total volume of loans issued to citizens in Tatarstan constantly increases, amounting to 34,35% in February. This, by the way, goes against the trend of the market — in Russia, people take more conventional loans than mortgages (the indicator is 27,7%).