BT offers mortgages at 12.5%

Banca Transilvania is now offering mortgages in ROL at 12.5% per annum, the same rate it pays on deposits in ROL over more than six months. This makes Transilvania the second bank in the system to announce significantly lower interest rates on ROL mortgages compared with other types of lending, relying on the continued reduction of interest rates on the market for ROL. Last month saw ING Bank Romania launch two different ROL mortgages with fixed rates of interest for the first few years. One of these, called Avantaj Plus, comes with a fixed 12% rate for the first two years. The other, Optim, has a fixed rate of 13% for the first five years. As a result, interest rates on mortgages in ROL are now within a few percentage points of those on foreign currency mortgages. Banks are currently offering mortgages in dollars and euros at around 10%. ZF