Official: banks reject more than half of mortgage applications on the primary market

After consistently high approval rates in October and November of this year, banks significantly reduced the approval rate for mortgage loans. In the secondary market, the share of approved applications in the top 15 banks by issuance compared to November of this year decreased by 4.7% to 48.4%, in the primary market — by 5.9%, to 48.3% — said the executive director of “Etazhi” Regina Dydalina.

In her opinion, such a significant decrease in the indicator is associated not only with an increase in banks’ requirements for borrowers, but also with a large share of applications from Russians who do not have the real financial capacity to repay the loan.

There are a lot of people who have a low credit rating due to the large number of issued credit cards and installment plans. In the wake of the hype, rarely does anyone check their credit history, debt load and take care of closing or reducing the limit on credit cards in advance. Such applicants are often rejected by banks, — Regina Dydalina explained.

The head of the mortgage department of the aggregator of new buildings RedCat, Elena Kudryavtseva, in a conversation with a Tsian.Zhurnal correspondent, confirmed that there is now a slowdown in the rate of issuing loans and a deterioration in approval rates.

Even if the bank’s preliminary decision was positive, at the stage of concluding the transaction, additional checks may be carried out, which sometimes lead to a refusal immediately before signing the agreement for participation in shared construction,” the expert emphasized.

In her opinion, the banking system has become more strict in assessing the reliability of the borrower: tax returns, income certificates, and actual employment of the client are now carefully checked. She also added that the processing time for documents has increased significantly, and as of December 15, some large banks plan to suspend the issuance of new mortgage loans.

This is due to several factors: a number of large market players have exhausted their credit limits, while other banks prefer to minimize risks by refraining from approving new clients in order to avoid possible conflicts in the future. The fact is that clients who received approval earlier will continue to use the terms of family lending approved for the current period. However, the terms of the family mortgage program will change next yearElena Kudryavtseva recalled.

The specialist clarified that, despite the complicated situation with lending, the demand for mortgages remains high: many citizens are trying to take advantage of favorable conditions at the last moment, trying to get a housing loan in time on the current preferential terms.

Valery Tumin, director of Russian and CIS markets at fam Properties, believes that the decrease in the approval of applications is a direct consequence of the policy of the Central Bank, which, from July 1, 2025, introduced strict limits on the debt load indicator and the down payment.

Over 2 years, the share of the riskiest loans — with a debt burden above 80% — fell from 47% to 6%, and the share of loans with a down payment below 20% fell from 51% to 5%. Banks have formed a protective capital buffer in the amount of 1.6% of the portfolio— said the expert.

He noted that the practice of “going to banks,” when a borrower, after being rejected by one credit institution, turns to the next, does exist, but it works to a limited extent.

Information about applications reaches the credit bureau within 5 business days, and each new request reduces the chances of approval. A smart strategy is to submit to a maximum of 2-3 banks at a time. If it is not approved anywhere, then the problem is not with a specific bank, but with the borrower’s creditworthiness. Trying again makes sense only after two months, when you can improve your performancecontinued Valery Tumin.

According to his assessment, the process of market recovery is underway, albeit painfully.

The volume of mortgages issued in April 2025 amounted to 65.2 thousand loans compared to 114 thousand a year earlier — a decline of almost half. But the quality of the portfolio is improving: banks began to issue loans to those who are really able to service them. Mortgage arrears increased slightly — from 0.5% to 0.9% per year, and this is mainly a legacy of the rush demand of 2023–2024, when loans were issued to everyone in a row.said Valery Tumin.

Est-a-Tet Operations Director Alexey Novikov drew attention to the fact that banks’ demands on borrowers depend on the lending product. Thus, the approval rate of applications for preferential mortgage programs is about 40%, while for standard products this figure reaches 60%.

This suggests that banks are seeking to limit the volume of loans issued under preferential programs in order to ensure high quality of the portfolio for these transactions, and that control over checking the solvency of clients has increased: credit history, employment, and debt load are more carefully considered. Programs providing for a simplified procedure for considering an application based on two documents have practically disappeared,” the expert noted.

He also recalled that the Central Bank announced, from March 1, 2026, a ban on the use of a certificate in the bank’s form to confirm clients’ income.

The goal of the initiative is to improve the quality of banks’ loan portfolios by minimizing the risk of late payments. These measures may help reduce the total number of loans issued, since today a significant number of clients confirm their income with a certificate in the form of a bank, and not through official income“, concluded Alexey Novikov.

The owner of the Lazovsky House construction company, Maxim Lazovsky, said that in the individual housing construction segment the situation with loan approval looks even tougher.

Individual housing construction for banks is a more risky product: delays in construction deadlines, higher cost estimates, problems with the contractor and the liquidity of the collateral in the early stages are possible. Against this background, lenders are laying down regulatory restrictions in advance and reducing the share of loans for clients with high debt loads, strengthening the requirements for escrow schemes, proven contractors and the amount of the borrower’s own funds, — commented the developer.

Such dynamics, in his opinion, can be considered as a partial recovery of the market: the number of transactions carried out at the limit of financial capabilities is decreasing.

At the same time, the effect of successive applications to different banks remains, but it no longer gives the same result — a steady increase in approvals does not occur after several refusals. As a result, the share of pent-up demand in the individual housing construction market is increasing: families are revising budgets, accumulating a down payment, simplifying house designs or taking a wait-and-see approach in anticipation of softer conditions, — summed up Maxim Lazovsky.