The Ministry Of Finance May Close The IT Mortgage For Moscow And St. Petersburg

Now employees of companies accredited by the Ministry of Finance can get such a mortgage at a rate of up to 5% per annum with an initial payment of 15% of the cost of housing

Updated at 6:15 p.m.

The Ministry of Finance is considering the completion of the program of preferential IT mortgages for Moscow and St. Petersburg, Vedomosti writes, citing sources. An increase in the threshold for the minimum salary level for those wishing to use an IT mortgage is also being discussed.

Under current conditions, employees of companies accredited by the Ministry of Finance, aged from 18 to 50 years, can receive such a mortgage. From the age of 35, confirmation of the salary level is required. The mortgage rate is up to 5% per annum with an initial payment of 15% of the cost of housing. The maximum loan amount in cities with millions of people is 18 million rubles, for other regions — 9 million rubles.

The Ministry of Finance said that they are now discussing the parameters of extending the mortgage. The program in its current form should be completed at the end of 2024, and a number of other preferential mortgage programs — in early July. Dmitry Rakuta, founder of the Mortgage Brokers Association, real estate expert, comments:

Dmitry Rakuta, founder of the Association of Mortgage Brokers, real estate expert, “The limits of banks are running out, some banks, especially large ones, have exceeded this limit by even more than 100%, and the Ministry of Finance and the government are thinking about how to limit preferential IT mortgages. This practice has already been on the example of state support in 2020, which is just ending. And because of this, it is possible that the terms of the IT mortgage will also be changed, if now the initial payment is 20%, then it can be raised to 30%, which will limit the number of borrowers, and thus it will be possible to extend the mortgage until the end of the year. The main goal of the Ministry of Finance and the government is the creditworthiness of the population: in order for citizens to use preferential programs, they need to be constantly subsidized. In order to constantly subsidize, budget funds are needed, and there are quite a lot of preferential programs, now they are being actively reduced and removed. Perhaps the government believes that the task of IT mortgages has been completed, some of the specialists who wanted to purchase have already done so, and it makes no sense to further pour resources into extending such a program. Now, in general, it is difficult to take out a mortgage, no matter whether it is preferential or market-based, it can be stated that mortgages are becoming a luxury, because it is extremely difficult to get a solution and enter into a deal, there are a lot of refusals, due to the fact that banks have tightened the screws.”

Alexey Kazarin, CEO of the Credit Specialist System company, has no doubt that the IT mortgage will be canceled in Moscow and St. Petersburg. But as for the regions, it may persist there.:

Alexey Kazarin, CEO of the Credit Specialist System company, “In parallel, maybe this program will be modified in some way by amounts by region, but regions still need to be developed, I think it will remain in other regions. If we talk about problems in the lending market, we currently have problems with the secondary market, because there are actually no preferential lending programs for the secondary sector. I will not talk about special programs such as Far Eastern and Arctic mortgages, namely, the usual secondary mortgage is now at rates of more than 18%, and these are our flagship banks, and people are not very ready to take on such conditions. Therefore, this is probably the main deterrent factor in the market now, because of it, the price difference between the primary and secondary markets continues. If we talk about other programs, then the family mortgage is unlikely to be canceled, it is still a target product, we are trying to maintain the birth rate, but it is still not supported in any way. Therefore, I think that the family mortgage will undergo the least modifications, perhaps there will be some certain gradation from the number of children, from their age, but the amounts will remain. Interest rates can be raised by a couple of percentage points, but I doubt it will be more. Will there be other programs? Well, I do not know what programs may appear, because it is possible to introduce a secondary benefit, if only in certain regions where it is necessary to raise the economy. Only in certain regions that the state would like to develop, namely to support, so that people do not leave there, for example.”

The Ministry of Finance notes that the demand for IT mortgages exceeded the expected support figures by more than 50% by the end of last year.