During the financial crisis the Hungarian property market decreased the most in Europe, but now it finally seems to begin to rise again. Hungarians are more likely to take a loan, the forint-loans are currently quite cheap, and those who have a debt because of their foreign-currency loan will get a reimbursement.
Hungarians Are More Likely to Get a Loan
A several 100 thousand Hungarian families got a Swiss-franc loan before the crisis, and got themselves into a tough situation when their monthly payment increased. Foreign-currency loans were banned in 2010 in Hungary, and this year The National Bank of Hungary cut the benchmark rate to a record 2.1 percent, which made Hungarians more likely to get a loan again – 2 years ago the benchmark rate was 7 percent. According to the promises the rate remains the same next year.
Forint-Loans Are Very Cheap
Hungarian economy severely declined during the crisis, but in the 2nd quarter of 2014 it increased by 3.9 percent compared to last year’s same period. The average rate of mortgage loans was 7.6 percent in the second quarter. According Zoltán Kovács, managing director of Benks Kft. loan advisor company forint-loans are currently very cheap; cheaper than Swiss-franc-loans used to be at their peak of popularity. In July a total of HUF 26.2 billion was taken as a loan, which is 27 percent more than in last month, and 70 percent more than in last year.
Debtors Can Get a Total of HUF 1000 Billion Back from Banks
According to the estimation of OTP Bank 95 thousand transactions will be realized this year, compared to last year’s 88 thousand – the increase is easily noticeable. According to a September decision of the parliament banks have to pay the debtors back the money they had to pay because of the unilateral changes to contract terms which caused an increase of the monthly payments. The debtors can get a total of HUF 1 thousand billion back.
Source:http://www.bloomberg.com
