Swap guarantees: the amount of insured mortgage funds will increase in 2025

The authorities are preparing to raise the amount of insurance for mortgage funds in escrow accounts when buying housing from the current 10 million to 20 million or even 30 million rubles, Izvestia has learned. This will better protect borrowers in case of bankruptcy of the developer or credit organization. Such changes are important against the background of the rapid growth of housing prices - new buildings rose in price by a third during the year. Thanks to the initiative, banks will be able to approve housing loans for larger amounts. How this correlates with the already high creditworthiness of citizens - in the material "Izvestia".

For what amount are insured funds on mortgage escrow accounts

The bill to increase the amount of insurance of funds in escrow accounts for the purchase of housing may be introduced in the State Duma in the near future - in the fall session, said "Izvestia" head of the State Duma Committee on Finance Anatoly Aksakov.

- There are already variants of the bill, but the text is still being prepared for introduction. There is not much left to work on," Anatoly Aksakov noted.

The deputy emphasized that the changes will be able to come into force soon after consideration - but already in 2025.

The amount of insurance of funds on escrow accounts is planned to be doubled - up to 20 million rubles, said the Director of the Department of Banking Regulation and Analytics of the Central Bank Alexander Danilov in an interview with "Izvestia" in August 2024. According to him, the regulator is working on this possibility with the Ministry of Finance and the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA).

At the same time, the DIA told Izvestia that the amount of compensation for escrow accounts is planned to be tripled to 30 million rubles at once. They noted that the current limit of 10 million often does not cover the cost of housing due to rising real estate prices. The initiative is designed to reduce risks for buyers of apartments and participants in shared construction.

Prices for new buildings for the year jumped by a third and reached an average of 171 thousand rubles per square meter in Russia, according to the data of the Central Bank for the II quarter of 2024. In the Central Federal District, the price is 37% higher than the national average, and in Moscow - more than twice as much.

- Today, in many cities with a million inhabitants, the cost of apartments often exceeds 10 million rubles," explained Marina Zabotina, a representative of PSB.

The system of insurance of funds on escrow accounts had to react to these changes sooner or later, summarized Freedom Finance Global analyst Vladimir Chernov.

Why do you need to insure funds on escrow accounts?

Money is insured to protect borrowers from the bankruptcy of a financial organization. If this happens, the buyer of real estate can receive compensation on the escrow account in the amount of 100% of the amount on it, but not above the threshold of insured funds - now it is 10 million rubles, according to the explanatory materials of "Dom.RF".

Now in the risk zone are all apartments that cost more than this amount - Russians can lose the uninsured amount if the developer has problems with the object, said Vladimir Chernov from Freedom Finance Global. Such prices are found mainly in the capital and southern regions, as well as in resort cities with a million inhabitants.

However, according to the DIA, insurance cases are not so frequent - since the beginning of 2024 licenses have been revoked from only five credit institutions.

The mechanism of insurance of funds on escrow accounts is also designed to prevent situations when the developer can not complete the housing on time, explained "Izvestia" independent expert Andrei Barkhota. If the developer goes bankrupt, the funds in escrow accounts are returned to the borrower within the insured amount, which they want to increase.

In addition, the authorities control the situation and eliminate unfair schemes in the housing market. Thus, some banks and developers offered to send money to letters of credit instead of escrow accounts, the Central Bank reported in March. This gave market participants additional income, while clients' funds were jeopardized and in principle were not insured.

Now the Central Bank has created conditions to reduce the number of such cases, the regulator's press service told Izvestia. On the initiative of the Bank of Russia, the conditions of the preferential programs included the requirement to credit the escrow account with the entire amount of the equity participation agreement. This made schemes with letters of credit impossible in the case of housing purchased under state programs.

How the growth of insurance will affect the issuance of mortgages

The increased amount of insurance indemnity will give borrowers more confidence when choosing a home, says Marina Zabotina from PSB.

The size of the insurance amount on escrow accounts will also affect the mortgage issuance policy and the availability of housing under construction, says Vladimir Chernov from Freedom Finance. After increasing the amount of insurance, borrowers will be able to count on mortgage approval for a larger amount without tightening conditions. Banks themselves will be more willing to grant loans of larger amounts.

At the same time, the increase in the amount of insurance will not affect the amount of deductions of banks to the mandatory deposit insurance fund, emphasized in the DIA. From this we can conclude that this factor will not lead to a tightening of the policy of banks in terms of issuing mortgages.

However, according to Andrei Barkhota, this initiative has another side. If banks become more active in selling housing for mortgage - it will allow the real estate market to grow further, and thus, housing prices will increase.