Now only for rural residents: preferential mortgages becoming more and more targeted
In 2025, Tatarstan issued only four loans for 18.3 million rubles under the old conditions, and they are not accepting applications for the new ones yet
The new rules for issuing rural mortgages, which came into force on March 28, were unexpected for all market participants. Now, only employees of the agro-industrial complex, residents of villages working in the social sphere, as well as families of the SVO participants will have the opportunity to claim benefits. Last year, Tatarstan, according to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Tatarstan, became one of the leaders in issuing rural mortgages — 777 loans worth almost 4 billion rubles were issued during the year. In the first quarter of 2025, we received only four loans, and those were based on last year's applications. According to the new rules, rural mortgages are not being issued yet, and it is difficult to get clarity from authorised banks. Realnoe Vremya has analysed the situation.
The Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation has published new conditions for rural mortgages aimed at preserving human resources in rural areas. Under the new terms of rural mortgages in 2025, only certain categories of rural-related citizens will be able to receive a preferential loan at 3%.
Everyone expected that the list of settlements under rural mortgages would be changed and all villages that are located closer than 50 km to large settlements would be removed from there, but everything turned out to be more interesting. The program has become more targeted, and the basic conditions have not changed much.
Among the important changes: the concepts of “agro-industrial complex” and “organisation of the social sphere” have been introduced. Every six months, within five years from the moment of signing the loan agreement, the borrower is obliged to confirm to the bank that he works in rural areas and belongs to the privileged category of citizens who are entitled to a rural mortgage. In case of violation of the terms, the bank has the right to raise the rate to the market rate. This will be specified in the loan agreement.
Under the new conditions, specialists who work in the field of the agro-industrial complex; in the social sphere in rural areas; in organisations subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Federal Agency for Fisheries, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance; in the executive bodies of the subjects of the Russian Federation authorised in the field of veterinary medicine and organisations subordinate to them; in local self-government in rural areas. In addition, sole proprietors in the agro-industrial complex who have been operating for 5 years since the conclusion of the contract, as well as SVO participants and their spouses or widows who have not remarried, will have the opportunity to count on a preferential loan.
The Rural Mortgage program was launched in Russia in 2020. A preferential loan was provided for the construction of a residential building under a contract with an organisation (legal entity or sole proprietor) for a period not exceeding 24 months from the date of granting the loan, for the purchase of a house located in rural areas, as well as for the construction of a house on their own, provided they use a prefabricated house purchased under a loan and for the purchase of apartments on the primary market in houses with a height of no more than five floors in the main settlements.
It is noteworthy that the banks did not comment on the new terms of the program. Requests sent by Realnoe Vremya to credit organisations operating in Tatarstan remained unanswered.
One of the authorised banks informally told Realnoe Vremya that last year rural mortgages were not issued at all due to the lack of allocated limits.
Anastasia Gizatova, head of Schastliviy Dom company, notes that rural mortgages are now similar to IT mortgages.
Rosselkhoznadzor promised Realnoe Vremya to comment on the new conditions for issuing rural mortgages and whether they were unexpected for the bank, but at the time of publication of the material, the editorial office had not received any answers.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Tatarstan noted that the republic is one of the leading regions in Russia in terms of rural mortgage issuance. In total, over the period of the program's implementation from 2020 to 2024, 5,500 mortgage loans worth more than 17.1 billion rubles were issued in Tatarstan. In 2024, 777 rural mortgages worth almost 4 billion rubles were issued in Tatarstan, and this year, as of April 1, there were only four loans worth 18.3 million rubles based on applications submitted last year.
