Banks: Seven-year record with 1 billion euro mortgage deals in 2021

Housing loans in 2021 made an impressive finale with the amounts of the loan agreements signed in December reaching a high of 7.5 years, with an annual increase of 100%.

According to the official data of the Bank of Greece, the new financing that was contracted in the last month of last year, approached 160 million euros.

In this way, in 2021 the market exceeded the level of 1 billion euros, something that hadn't happened since 2014.

This return, as well as the previous fall, are due to changes in both the supply and demand of money in recent years.

On the one hand, banks after the imposition of capital controls and their third forced recapitalization in 2015 became much more conservative.

They tightened the criteria for examining the creditworthiness of the interested parties and were quite sparing in terms of the amount and the percentage of financing of each loan.

At the same time, however, in terms of demand, there was a decrease after the 2015 adventure and an increase in the country's risk of exiting the euro.

Stabilization

It took more than two years to stabilize the system and improve the psychology of households, as the worst for the country was averted.

Thus, gradually both demand and supply began to strengthen, starting from 2017.

The market started from around 400 million euros in 2016 to exceed as mentioned above 1 billion euros last year.

The findings of the latest bank lending survey conducted by the Bank of Greece, which show that demand has risen for 6 consecutive quarters, are not just coincidental.

In fact, the forecast for the first quarter of 2022 is that it will be further strengthened.

Interest rates

An important role in accelerating the growth rates of...