What happened to the preferential mortgage in Russia and why it is now so difficult to get it

The government has decided to drain the preferential mortgage: the Cabinet of Ministers has published a resolution according to which the minimum initial payment for a loan under the state program has been increased from 15% to 20%. At the same time, the compensation that banks receive from the state when issuing preferential mortgages to Russians has been reduced by 0.5 percentage points.

Everyone will have to pay more

Preferential mortgages are becoming the lot of the chosen ones: now you need to have even more money for the initial payment. For example, buying an apartment in Moscow for 12 million rubles, you need to pay at least 2.4 million rubles out of your own pocket. And it does not matter that the loan amount (9.6 million) will be less than the possible limit. Previously, it was possible to pay 1.8 million of own funds and take 11.2 million in a mortgage.

It is also unlikely that it will be possible to get the missing amount with an ordinary consumer loan: reduced subsidies make preferential mortgages less attractive for banks. Now they must carefully select borrowers in order to reduce their own risks of non-repayment of funds. The extra debt burden will only prevent the borrower from getting approval.

Good conditions — in the Far East and in The Arctic. But everyone is running from there

In the future, favorable conditions are expected only for residents of the Far East and Arctic regions. According to Vladimir Putin's proposal, which was announced at the WEF, the maximum loan amount under the Far Eastern Mortgage program with a rate of 2% should be increased from 6 to 9 million rubles for apartments with an area of more than 60 sq. m., also this program should become available to all employees of the Far Eastern defense industry enterprises. So far, young families with spouses up to 36 years old, as well as all doctors and teachers can count on a loan at 2%. The Arctic regions should join this program in November.

A mortgage at 2% is a nice offer, but this is clearly not enough for people. Research by the Platform CSP shows that 33% of residents of the Far Eastern Federal District are focused on moving to other regions, and 16% of them are ready to move to a new place of residence in the near future. Both young people and older people want to leave. This is not just talk and abstract dreams: last year, the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories lost about 4% of their residents due to human migration.

The course for East. We save on all the others

Promises to improve life in the Far East are backed up by additional funding: in early September, the Cabinet of Ministers increased the limits for issuing all mortgage programs by 1.9 trillion rubles. But the limits are distributed unevenly. Financing of the «Far Eastern mortgage» will be increased from 450 billion rubles to 1.3 trillion rubles — an increase of 850 billion rubles at once! «Family mortgage» will receive an additional 300 billion rubles, the most popular «Mortgage with state support», available to everyone, will grow by only 11% or 500 billion rubles. «Mortgage for IT specialists» will grow by 260 billion rubles — up to 500 billion.

Pay attention: this is exactly the possible volume of mortgages issued, and not the financing of subsidies. By the end of the year, the authorities will certainly not save on preferential mortgages (experts believe that an additional 70 billion rubles will be required by the end of the year), but the issue of budget deficit has not been removed from the agenda. At the WEF, Vladimir Putin also noted that preferential mortgages create risks for the economy. Chapter HOUSE.The Russian Federation, which is the operator of preferential programs, Vitaly Mutko has already reacted to this, and proposed to introduce a program of «disconnected» mortgage benefits. In his opinion, the programs should be exclusively targeted, and subsidies for everyone should be valid only at a key rate above 10%.

The authorities are clearly looking for various ways to save on mortgage programs. And soon this task will become even more urgent. 43% of analysts expect a 0.5-1 percentage point increase in the key rate as early as next Friday. And the key rate is the most important factor that affects the tightening of the screws on a preferential mortgage.