How will housing deposits work?
As noted in the explanatory note, the bill provides for the creation of a housing savings agreement, that is, a specific deposit: the bank will accept contributions from clients, accrue interest on them and, in the end, use the funds accumulated to purchase a home. or finance the investor’s participation in the construction of shared or individual homes. The deposit is long-term, that is, it is opened for a period of more than one year. Interest accrues annually or at the time of the intended use of the funds.
Insurance coverage is also provided – up to 10 million rubles. The Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) informed RG that if the relevant law is approved, the state corporation will guarantee housing savings accounts within the framework of its powers.
According to Nikita Kazantsev, head of products and services at DOM.RF bank, they support the idea of creating deposits for housing and are preliminarily ready to launch this product. “It will help increase the affordability of mortgages and allow clients to save the down payment or use it to pay off debts,” says the expert. “To clarify the parameters, it is necessary to wait for the final conditions of the savings program.” .”
These products will surely be in demand, the VTB press service informed RG. “This is a good opportunity to save decisively for the purchase of a new home, especially for families with children,” they say. At the same time, the bank supports the initiative and is already considering the possibility of introducing this product into its line.
As Kazantsev added, the rates on real estate deposits can be higher than those on classic deposits. It is also possible to apply standard discounts to the mortgage rate or even adjust the amount of the down payment. “Preferential early termination with partial retention of the rate may also be provided,” the expert added.
Targeted long-term deposits will significantly reduce risks thanks to a thorough analysis of the payment discipline of future borrowers, says Yaroslav Bajurak, commercial director of the Vyberu.ru financial market. “As a result, credit institutions will receive a reliable client with a real amount accumulated and accustomed to regular payments,” he said in conversation with RG.
It follows from the bill that a citizen can send the accumulated funds to another credit organization where the housing deposit is not open. If, after closing the deposit, even early, the client did not use the funds to improve the conditions of the home, pay the down payment or, for example, pay off the principal debt on a mortgage loan, the interest on the deposit will be close to zero. The bank itself may refuse to issue a loan agreement to the client. These reasons include the borrower’s high debt load or overdue debt.
How will the new deposit affect the mortgage market?
The press service of the PSB explained that the pricing conditions for mortgages continue to have priority for borrowers. “Therefore, we do not expect that the appearance of a savings product of this type will have a strong stimulating effect on the mortgage market,” they added. The level of interest rates, primarily the value of the Central Bank’s key rate, has a much greater impact on the demand and pace of lending.
The head of the analytical center “Indicators of the real estate market IRN.RU” Oleg Repchenko told RG that over the past three to four years, housing prices throughout Russia have approximately doubled, significantly exceeding inflation and interest rates. of deposits. “Therefore, if the rates on housing deposits proposed to be introduced do not increase, but are normalized, then a person will simply never be able to save for an apartment using such an instrument if prices continue to rise,” he believes. he.
According to the expert, rising prices are the main obstacle to housing affordability. Everything else, including purchase and accumulation instruments, according to Repchenko, is secondary.
The bill, as the deputies explain, does not provide for direct support to depositors from the federal budget or the budgets of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. However, it is possible to “implement regional programs to support housing savings.”
“We should focus on the experience of several constituent entities of the Russian Federation, where the experiment was successful, taking into account the co-financing of housing savings from regional budgets,” the DIA shared. For example, these mortgage savings programs worked in Bashkortostan and the Krasnodar Territory. This made it possible to guarantee a mortgage rate of 6-7%. Local programs also operated in Mordovia, but they only concerned loans: preferential mortgages at 5% were issued to support citizens and the construction industry.
Will these deposits become popular among citizens?
“At the moment there are more questions than answers about the initiative, so it is quite difficult to predict how it will be perceived by banks and customers,” Vyberu.ru’s commercial director shared with RG.
According to Bajurak, for a real estate deposit to be popular, its conditions must be more attractive than those of conventional bank deposits. However, it is still unclear whether all banks are willing to raise interest rates. “If such a deposit requires periodic replenishment, will this affect the rate? – says the expert. “After all, traditional deposits with replenishment have a lower rate.” He also noted that attractive discounts or special conditions would make said deposit more interesting.
“Given that real estate deposits are long-term, mortgage conditions can change significantly during this time and the accumulated interest will probably be less than the increase in real estate prices,” the expert does not rule out. In this case, the accumulated funds may not be sufficient due to the increase in the price of apartments, which raises the issue of early withdrawal of funds and penalties. “It would be correct to guarantee the future borrower the conditions under which he signed the contract and regulate the level of real estate prices at the state level, subsidizing the developers.” – Bajurak believes.
According to the idea of the deputies, the launch of the housing savings system will create a predictable future demand for mortgage banking products, since “a citizen will be able to accumulate funds for the down payment under a loan agreement.”
