Fri, Feb 10 2012
Four Bulgarian banks raised the interest rates charged on lev-denominated mortgage loans in September, data from moitepari.bg website, which compares loan and personal finance offers of different lenders, showed.
The Moite Pari leva-denominated index, which tracks the average annual interest rates of 20-year mortgages, picked up five basis points to reach 9.61 per cent, the highest since was launched at the end of 2005.
Five of the fifteen leading local-currency mortgage lenders tracked by the index have revised their mortgage loan terms. Only Municipal Bank cut by the price of its most popular mortgage loan by two basis points after the central bank lowered its benchmark rate, the website said.
The price of Allianz Bank Bulgaria's loans jumped by 0.76 percentage points as the interest rate grew nearly as much.
Raiffeisenbank's Bulgarian arm added 30 basis points to the rate of its best mortgage offer, and the new service fee brought the total increase to 0.38 percentage points.
The SOFIBOR index rising 0.15 percentage points in September drove up the price of ProCredit Bank's mortgages by 0.13 percentage points.
UniCredit Bulbank made a milder increase, adding eight basis points and halving application fee, for a total increase of seven basis points.
The Moite Pari euro-denominated index rose almost twice as quicker than its local-currency counterpart due to price hikes by EIBank, Allianz Bank Bulgaria, UniCredit Bulbank, Raiffeisenbank and ProCredit Bank. Up by nine basis points, the average annual interest rates of 20-year mortgages denominated in euro is now 8.46 per cent.
Source: Dnevnik.bg
Average market prices of homes in Sofia fell by one per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared to the same period of 2010, according to the Raiffeisen Real Estate Index, as quoted by Klasa daily.
Proportionately, the number of transactions in leva increased as people reacted to speculation that the euro would disappear.
Nearly all banks are ready to finance between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of the price of a home, provided it is a good building in a large city, Bulgarian daily says.
Property prices in Bulgaria were five to 10 per cent lower in 2011 than in 2010, while initial estimates for this year are that they will remain largely unchanged, with transactions remaining at ‘crisis levels’.
Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia ranks 17th, report says, quoting Global Property Guide.