A strained relationship

The Polish Association of Developers (PZFD) has published the fifth edition of its annual ranking of banks financing residential real estate investments. The overall winner was Nordea Bank Polska, while Bank Zachodni WBK and Pekao took second and third places respectively.

Zbigniew Malisz, general director of the board of PZFD, pointed out that because the rules for this year's ranking were the same as last year's, direct comparisons can be drawn between the two rankings. The top-ranked banks were the same in last year's ranking, but the total number of points awarded to banks was higher then. According to Malisz, the banks' lower scores this year are a testament to developers' growing dissatisfaction.

Developers particularly resented the growing difficulty in obtaining financial backing from banks. There is a visible disproportion between the volume of credit granted to developers and individual apartment buyers, representatives of PZFD argued, stressing that the situation constituted a serious obstacle to the delivery of new projects.

The results of the ranking also provided a broad overview of developer-bank cooperation and reflected the new trends that the residential market is now facing. "This edition of the ranking is taking place in a time of turmoil on international financial markets. Questions have arisen as to what the financing of developers' projects is going to look like in the future," said Jarosław Szanajca, president of the board of PZFD.

Factors considered during the evaluation process included banks' flexibility, provisions of credit contracts and whether the actual credit product matched what was advertised. The time banks needed to review credit applications was also taken into consideration, as was cooperation between lender and borrower over the course of the investment.