Erste banka grants 25% more housing loans in 2015

Zagreb, 19 January 2016 – In 2015 Erste banka granted approximately 1,030 retail home loans worth a total of HRK 325 million. The total amount of granted home loans increased by almost 25% compared to 2014, when the bank had granted 830 home loans worth a total of HRK 257 million. The average amount of a home purchase or home construction mortgage was around HRK 440,000, and the average amount of a non-mortgage home loan was HRK 130,000. Almost a third of the total home loans volume was granted in Zagreb, and Rijeka, Split, Bjelovar and Zadar complete the list of the bank’s top home loan marketing locations.

Erste bank offers several different home loan models at the moment (standard home loan, eco home loan and home improvement loan). It offers home loans with a currency clause denominated in EUR with a 30-year maturity and an interest rate of 5.06%, and home loans denominated in HRK with 20-year maturity and an interest rate of 5.09%.

Eco home loans denominated in EUR come with the most affordable interest rate of all Erste banka’s home loans. The variable interest rate is set at 4.76%. The maximum amount of an eco home loan is EUR 500,000, and maturity is 30 years. Eco home loans can be used to finance the purchase of a high energy efficiency home (A+, A, B and C), the construction, annexation and improvement of high energy efficiency homes, the purchase and installation of equipment for the utilisation of renewable energy sources, home improvement projects aimed at reducing energy consumption, heat insulation of housing buildings, and refinancing the costs of the necessary permits, decisions, approvals and documentation required under the regulations governing the energy sector.

We would also like to stress that Erste banka will lower the interest rates on the existing home and home improvement loans with a currency clause denominated in EUR, as well as the interest rates on home and home improvement loans denominated in HRK, as of 1 February 2016. The correction is the result of lower spread, and it is not a result of regular alignment resulting from changes in the value of the variable part of the interest rate at the end of the referential interest rate accounting period (EURIBOR, NRS). The interest rates on the existing home loans with a currency clause denominated in EUR will be lowered by an average of 0.9 percentage points, and the new interest rates will range between 5.05% and 6.05%. The interest rates on home improvement loans with a currency clause denominated in EUR will be lowered by an average of 0.3 percentage points and the new interest rates will range between 5.95% do 6.70%. The interest rates on existing home loans and home improvement loans denominated in HRK, which account for a small percentage of the total retail loans portfolio, will be lowered by an average of 1.05 percentage points.

After the variable interest rates were aligned with the new values of the referential interest rates, the interest rates on the existing home loans at Erste banka have also become somewhat more affordable as of 1 January 2016. This was the third alignment and the third time the interest rates were lowered in the past year. The interest rate on loans with a currency clause denominated in EUR with a variable interest rate, concluded before 9 January 2013, is lower by a total of 0.22 percentage points, and the interest rate on loans denominated in HRK by 0.30 percentage points compared to the end of 2014.