OREANDA-NEWS. Effective August 10, 2017, Sberbank is reducing the interest rates it offers on mortgage loans for clients who want to buy flats in new buildings or on the secondary market. In addition, the bank is reducing the minimum size of the downpayment required for its Buying Finished Residential Property product. This change is the largest single improvement of conditions for the product since Sberbank began offering mortgage lending. For interest rates this means a reduction of 0.6 to 2 percentage points. The size of the downpayment has been cut by 5 percentage points.

The new mortgage rates for new-build flats range from 7.4% to 10%, and from 8.9% to 10% for housing on the secondary market.

“Demand for mortgages has hit a new high and even exceeded the level recorded prior to the financial crisis. In May and June 2017, Sberbank provided a record volume of mortgages compared to the same period in previous years, with clients receiving around 154 billion roubles worth of mortgage lending. Growing demand is a result of the ratio between rates and real estate prices, which is at its most advantageous point since mortgages began being issued in Russia,” commented Nikolai Vasyev, Director of Sberbank’s DomClick Division. “Today we have made the biggest ever improvement to mortgage lending conditions at our bank, which will make buying real estate even more beneficial for clients.”