The expert spoke about the changes in March for those wishing to take out a mortgage

The easing of monetary policy regarding mortgages from March 1 may affect the likelihood of obtaining approval from the bank for those who plan to take out a mortgage at the present time, Alexander Perevoznikov, head of Tymy.Realty, told Izvestia on February 27.

From the beginning of March 2025, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation will reduce surcharges to mortgage risk ratios for banks. The changes will affect mortgage loans with a down payment of 20% for borrowers with a personal income tax (debt burden indicator) of up to 70%. After the mortgage market cooled in the second half of 2024 and the entry into force of the Mortgage Lending Standard on January 1, 2025, which protects the rights of borrowers, the regulator considered that monetary policy regarding mortgages could be slightly relaxed.

According to the internal analytics of the TYMY SaaS platform, which Izvestia reviewed, at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, the share of approvals for applications issued through the platform varied between 29-32%. At the same time, in the same period a year earlier, banks approved 49-53% of mortgage applications. In April and May 2024, the share of mortgage approvals was 43-45%, in June it decreased to 40% due to a sharp increase in the volume of applications for preferential mortgages: many applied "just in case" before completing the program.

Shadow payment: mortgage arrears have jumped one and a half times

Now the Central Bank and banks can tighten the conditions of disbursements.

"Now, the changes since March 1 are definitely aimed at supporting banks, for which mortgages have become quite expensive as a result of the tightening of the PREP due to the need for serious collateral for such loans. This resulted in a noticeable decrease in the share of approvals for mortgage applications, which we observed in late 2024 and early 2025," said Alexander Perevoznikov, head of Tymy.Realty.

According to him, the easing of monetary policy regarding mortgages from March 1 may affect the likelihood of obtaining approval from the bank for those who plan to take out a mortgage at the present time.

"Unfortunately, we are not talking about reviving the market and stimulating demand yet, the high key rate still limits the possibilities of borrowers, and it is still difficult for most to meet the personal income tax requirements even up to 70%. But starting from March 1, mortgages as a product will become a little more marginal for banks by reducing the cost of risks. This will undoubtedly increase the approval rate. That means that people are more likely to get a mortgage loan with an acceptable down payment. In the current difficult market, this is already good news," he summed up.

Earlier, on February 5, it was reported that almost half of the Russians surveyed somehow linked their plans in 2025 with the solution of the housing issue. One in eight (12%) plans to start saving and save money to buy a home. This is stated in the research results of the Level Group company.