Ghetea, ARB: Mortgage lending, unfrozen in one year at most

Mortgage lending in Romania may be resumed in one year at the latest, with the factors unfreezing the market being the high demand for housing and the fact that lending continues to prove profitable for banks, just like in the past. "Indeed, lending growth in the real estate field has stagnated, with this characterising the entire real estate system of Romania at present. We're in a transition period in the evolution of real estate lending, but housing loans continue to be in high demand and for banks this presents turnover growth opportunities. In a period of up to one year, I expect mortgage lending to rebound, with the real estate sector to resume growth," stated Radu Gratian Ghetea (photo), chairman of the Romanian Association of Banks (ARB) and of CEC Bank, during a workshop on the evolution of the real estate market in Romania. He considers the time of real estate market speculators, eying immediate profits, has gone, but the growth potential for real estate developers wanting to build in Romania is still there. ARB chairman also said we could see a rising number of late payers, but that this should not scare banks, but make them find a way to help customers. In a bid to unfreeze the real estate loan market, Ghetea also proposed the modification of the provisioning system, with ARB being now in talks with the NBR. Changes are particularly related to the way minimum mandatory reserves are approached.