Banks are cautiously optimistic regarding the spring-summer period on the home-lending market, the business daily Vilaggazdasag said on Thursday.
CIB Bank officials told the paper that the supply market and relatively low property prices are favourable to buyers. Furthermore, the fact that the stamp duty on property transfers has been cut and the tax on residential property shelved could also contribute to a pickup on the housing market.
The reduction of the base rate also benefits forint-based home loans, CIB experts added.
However, a recent government decree on prudential retail lending has increased the proportion of the mandatory self-finance, which could restrain the growth in the demand for home loans in the short-term.
Confident in a recovery of the home lending market, banks are offering a number of new or preferential facilities. Budapest Bank will pay the valuation fee for its clients taking out mortgage loans and has cut the price of its forint-based credit products. OTP Bank has introduced a new market-based forint home loan, with a special-offer fixed interest rate in the first year and an interest rate linked to a benchmark rate from the second year. OTP Bank will also offer subsidised and market-based forint home loans with low repayments from March 1 (combined with OTP Home Savings Bank contracts). In the last quarter of 2009, CIB Bank was the first to introduce a market-based forint home loan with an APR of less than 10pc, offering a pre-set interest rate and repayment for three years in advance.