The Ministry of Finance advocated completing the IT mortgage and the program at 8% on time

Validity period of benefit programs

Preferential mortgage programs should be completed as planned within the previously designated time frame, Alexey Yakovlev, director of the financial policy department of the Ministry of Finance, told Izvestia. The only exception will be the family one; it has already been decided to extend it until 2030. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this back in February.

Now more than 90% of all loans on the primary housing market are issued on preferential terms, a representative of the Ministry of Finance noted. According to him, the main reason is high rates due to the tough policy of the Central Bank. The trend, which began to form even before the key increase, leads to a distortion in the market, explained Alexey Yakovlev. In the medium and long term, the goal is to reduce the share of loans issued under preferential programs in the primary market to 25%.

A mortgage is an instrument that fixes conditions here and now, but has long-term obligations, so you need to be careful when working with it,” emphasizes Alexey Yakovlev.

There are currently several preferential mortgage programs operating in Russia. The most popular is 8% for new buildings. It sets a limit on the loan size of 6 million rubles, but the benefit can be combined with a market loan (take out the remaining portion at a higher interest rate). It is valid until July 1, 2024.

The state program for new buildings was introduced as an anti-crisis measure (during the coronavirus pandemic), which was supposed to support people and the construction industry at that time, noted Alexey Yakovlev. According to him, these tasks have been completed, so there are no plans to extend the mortgage at 8% even for certain categories. Support can be organized through other tools, says a representative of the Ministry of Finance.

The IT mortgage will be valid until the end of 2024. It allows employees of accredited companies, under certain conditions, to obtain a loan at a rate of up to 5%.

In total, during the operation of this state program, more than 59 thousand mortgage loans were issued in the amount of about 523 billion rubles, the press service of the Ministry of Digital Development told Izvestia.

The Far Eastern program provides for a housing loan at 2% for citizens under 35 years of age for real estate in the Far Eastern Federal District. You can take out such a loan until the end of 2030. Similar conditions can be obtained for an Arctic mortgage.

A family mortgage at 6% can now be obtained for the purchase of housing in a new building or a house with land. Under these conditions, it will operate until July, then it is planned to transform it. As Vladimir Putin stated, for families with children under six years of age the rate will remain the same.

Izvestia sent inquiries to the Central Bank and the Ministry of Construction about whether they support the extension of preferential programs.

How will the closure of most programs affect the market?

Preferential programs have led to a gap in cost between primary and secondary housing of up to 40%, noted Irina Nosova, senior director of the ACRA group of financial institution ratings. In her opinion, the termination of their validity (except for family ones) will serve as some correction in real estate prices due to decreased demand.

At the same time, a key rate above 12% can be considered actually prohibitive for mortgage clients, emphasized Vitaly Kostyukevich, director of the retail business department of Absolut Bank. This affects the business of developers. At the same time, in his opinion, the construction sector plays an important role for the economy and affects output and employment in related industries. His interests also need to be taken into account.

The effect of preferential programs should be maintained at least until the key rate is reduced to 10%, the expert believes. If they are curtailed earlier, this will lead to a fall in the mortgage market and the expansion of undesirable practices when issuing housing loans.

In addition, it is not necessary to close all preferential programs, in addition to the family one, noted Nikita Kulagin, head of the macroeconomic analysis department of Sovcombank. According to him, the program for new buildings can be extended by making it more targeted. And also — to maintain special conditions for IT specialists, residents of the Far East, the Arctic and military personnel.

The market should return to its natural development, VTB believes. However, to do this, we can move on to targeted assistance to certain categories of the population — for example, doctors, teachers, large families. Another vector could be support for private construction and regions where the pace of new housing commissioning is still insufficient, the bank believes.

The growth of the mortgage portfolio in January-February of this year has already slowed down, said Dmitry Gritskevich, manager for analysis of the banking and financial markets of PSB. He emphasized: this corresponds to the Central Bank’s expectations of cooling the market. At the same time, as the key rate decreases, the share of loans issued on preferential terms in the primary sector will also fall, the expert expects. The figure may reach 25% no earlier than the second half of 2025.

At the same time, in addition to the cancellation of a number of preferential programs in July 2024, the introduction of quantitative restrictions on mortgage issuance is expected soon, recalled Senior Director for Bank Ratings Expert RA Ivan Uklein. The Central Bank has repeatedly stated this. It is likely that they will start by cutting the share of loans with a low down payment and a high debt ratio (when the borrower spends a significant part of his income on paying off debts).

In the last months of the work of preferential programs, the demand for them will increase, because doubtful consumers will try to “jump into the last car,” believes Evgeniy Shavnev, general director of the real estate investment company Flip LLC. In his opinion, all state programs will not be curtailed. Regions with particularly overheating may be left without them, but developers, for example, will begin to offer special conditions.

It would be optimal to create a balance so that a preferential mortgage is not the only opportunity to purchase a home, but is on a par with other tools for purchasing real estate, the expert concluded.

source: News