First Home: two loans for building homes and five defaults

This year’s version of the “First Home” governmental scheme, designed to encourage the building of homes, has so far seen only two loans granted for this purpose.
At the same time, both the number and the value of loans granted for old homes have fallen by 40% against last year. Bankers have in the seven months since the start of the “First Home 2” scheme granted around 11,500 state-guaranteed loans amounting to an overall 460 million euros, with the entire previous scheme having a similar duration. The value of loans granted accounts for 65% of the 700 million-euro guarantee cap approved for this year.
The National Credit Guarantee Fund, the institution that manages the guarantees granted by the state as part of the scheme, analysed an average of 80 application documents per day in September and October, compared with a daily average of 120 applications in the first few months of 2010 and as much as 140-150 applications per day in the autumn of last year.
The number of applications analysed has been falling steadily since summer amid the worsening of the economic situation, as well as because the revision of the scheme has failed to meet expectations, with the scheme continuing to act only as an incentive to buy old homes.
Until the beginning of November, the Fund had recorded five claims for damages in the case of loans that had become non-performing.