Mortgage loans growth slows down

The growth rate of mortgage credits slowed down in October, when the volume of housing loans saw a monthly growth rate of just 3.4%. By comparison, in August and September, the growth pace stood at 10.5% and 7.7% respectively, according to NBR data. The significant growth rate seen in the previous months can be explained by the introduction of banks' own lending norms for mortgage and real estate credits. Consequently, these credits saw a significant advance during the summer months, which did not continue. The bankers did in fact notice a rather slow increase of retail credits this spring, which they blamed on clients that stalled on taking out loans and waited for the introduction of "relaxed" lending conditions. The spectacular rises seen by mortgage credits this summer (which registered a record 10% increase in August), confirmed this hypothesis.