Home buyers in Romania have among the lowest instalment payments for mortgages across the EU, according to a SVN Romania report.

The “2% Safe Mortgage” housing loan subsidy programme introduced by Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party has caused housing prices in Poland to shoot into space. However, the new government in Warsaw cannot abolish it, as a spike in demand could shake up the entire domestic property development industry.

The number of transactions this year is likely to catch up with last year's results, brokerage firm Duna House reports. 

The volume of new mortgage loans in Romania rose by 10.2% to 2.5 billion lei (€506 million) in H1 2023 compared to the same period of last year, of which refinancing operations had a 25% share, according to a report by SVN Romania | Credit & Financial Solutions. 

In the first half of 2023, over 93% of powiats around large cities in Poland showed an increase in interest in apartments for sale following the easing of conditions for granting mortgage loans, according to Otodom data.

Transactions have increased but the general mood remained very cautious across all regions of the country, Duna House Group (DHG) reports.

There were only 8,326 residential transactions closed in Hungary in October 2022 which is the lowest figure for the month since 2012, brokerage firm Duna House reports.

In the second quarter of this year, a total of 9,200 new apartments were sold in the six largest markets, 11.7% less than in the previous quarter and as much as 53% down on the same period in 2021. The drop in sales is mainly due to higher mortgage interest rates and tighter credit rating regulations. As shown in the JLL report which summarises the previous quarter, despite the reduced interest in purchasing flats in the market, housing prices continued to rise.

House prices in Hungary have reached a new record in 2021. In Q4 2021, the biggest jump occurred in secondary cities compared to the last quarter of 2020 (25% year-on-year) followed by Budapest (11% year-on-year), the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) reports.

The market for mortgage loans was dynamic in 2020 and this trend is continuing in early 2021, while the segment of consumer loans is narrowing, says Sergiu Oprescu, President of the Association of Romanian Banks (ARB).