Interest in mortgages in Slovakia is growing rapidly; the record is about to fall, reports index.sme.sk. The continued decline in interest rates and the sharp rise in real estate prices have motivated more and more people interested in housing not to delay their purchase. This is reflected in the growing interest in mortgage loans.
The volume of new mortgages in July this year reached €657 million, which is the amount that banks provided in July 2022. The absolute peak of the "pre-crisis" boom happened in March 2022, when banks provided new mortgages for €1.3 billion.
In the first seven months of this year, according to data from the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), banks have provided new mortgages in a total amount of €3.8 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 63 per cent. The volume of housing loans is increasing every month, and this trend has not slowed down even in the first month of the summer holidays, which is traditionally weaker because people are on vacation. It is expected to continue; the first bank has already presented an autumn mortgage campaign.
From the beginning of the year to July, the volume of renegotiated mortgages climbed to €9 billion. "At first glance, this really seems like a huge number, but only 13 per cent of this volume were refinanced mortgages," says Slavomír Molnár, Financial Advisor at Prosight Slovensko.
This means that mortgage interbank “tourism” is relatively low. The sum of new and renegotiated mortgages in the first seven months of the year amounts to €13 billion. This is only €1.5 billion less than in the first seven months of the record year 2022. If the growth trend continues, historical records in the volume of mortgages provided will fall during the coming autumn.
