19:15 26 May 2022
Home loan rates hit record highs
Interest rates for loans with low down-payment are now the highest they have been since 2006, even though banks have lowered their margins. This is the effect of the recent WIBOR increase triggered by the NBP interest rate hikes, according to data compiled by Expander and Rentier.io.
The average margin for a new loan granted with a 10-percent equity contribution has dropped to 2.5 percent (from 2.79 percent a year ago). However, after taking into account the current level of the WIBOR 3M and WIBOR 6M rates, it turns out that the average interest rate has increased to 9.12 percent, according to Expander and Rentier.io analysts.
"This is the highest level of the average interest rate recorded by us on offers of loans with the lowest permissible own contribution since we have been collecting such data, i.e. since September 2006. The previous record comes from November 2008, when the average interest rate for a loan without any own contribution was 8.68 percent," they stressed.
An additional effect of the increase in WIBOR rates, and thus in credit interest rates, is a sharp reduction in the availability of new loans. This – and the new recommendation of the Financial Supervision Authority, which orders banks to calculate creditworthiness as if interest rates were 5 percentage points higher than they actually are – has radically limited creditworthiness.
