Autumn rekindles appetite for real estate credits

Mortgage credit continued to see a fast rise in September, after the leap made in August, especially amid a high demand for financing in foreign currencies. Expressed in euros, the volume of mortgage credit climbed 3.3%, i.e. by 150 million euros in September, to 4.7 billion euros. In August, the rise had amounted to 180 million euros, according to data from the NBR (National Bank of Romania). This acceleration comes after real estate financing slowed down significantly at the beginning of summer. “A rise in demand was felt in September from clients, given that banks no longer had aggressive campaigns,” says Lucian Cojocaru, executive manager of BRD Soc-Gen’s Commercial Network. He says real estate credit sales were better than originally expected, although the market remains quite “thin”. The overall volume of mortgage and real estate credits amounted to 19.16 billion RON (equivalent to 5.1 billion euros), an 8.4% rise on the previous month. This is the highest monthly growth since November 2007.