Mortgage Lending in January-September 2020

Sergey A. Zubov – Senior Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Сandidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor (Moscow, Russia). Е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

On the back of the lending market interest rate cuts and implementation of the subsidized mortgage program (mortgage loans at the interest rate of 6.5% per annum for home buying on the primary housing market), real-estate market demand picked up. In Q1–Q3, 2020, banks increased substantially mortgage lending volumes, having surpassed the high outturns seen in 2018. The downside of the lending-based demand stimulation was the appreciation of prices both on the primary and secondary housing markets and high household debt load. This makes the money authorities point to the need of wrapping up the subsidized mortgage government program in the near future.

Key words: Russian banking sector, mortgage lending, subsidized mortgage program, household debt load, Bank of Russia, pandemic.