Real Estate Market in 2023: ČSOB Grants 172 Billion Crowns in Estate Loans
In 2023, despite more difficult market conditions, banks granted real estate loans to households amounting to 172 billion crowns. Among them, customers of the ČSOB Group took out mortgages worth 39 billion crowns and built up savings loans worth 7 billion crowns, according to estimates and data from the leading real estate market financing group.
As per the statements of Martin Vašek, managing director and chairman of the board of Hypoteční banka and ČSOB Stavební spořitelna, 21,500 households received housing finance in the past year. The trend was held back by factors related to the growth in average rates compared to the previous year, the slight fall in real estate prices, and the increase in prices of goods and services, a consequence of high inflation. This has led to a decrease in the purchasing power of the population.
Inflation and market interest rates are expected to fall again this year, resulting in a resumption of the flow of real estate loans.
Digitization of mortgages and innovations in the supply of affordable housing
In the final part of the year, a significant innovation was introduced: customers who had taken out mortgages in recent months were able to use the qualified electronic signature procedure, the highest level of electronic signature. The breakthrough is the result of synergy with ČÚZK (the Czech Office of Cadastral Surveying and Land Registry). The resulting simplification of processes means paper documents and time-saving because mortgage clients no longer have to deal with how to submit mortgage contracts to the cadastre.
The sustainable product offering of the ČSOB Stavební spořitelna Group, already including mortgages, loans, and unsecured loans for affordable housing, will be considerably expanded in response to the growing trend of frugal housing loans. New features include advisory services related to New Green Savings (NZÚ) from January and subsidized loans for energy-saving measures for applicants of the NZÚ subsidy program ‘Oprav dům po babičce’ from February. Interest on the loans will be at most half the CNB rate for unsecured real estate loans, currently at 3.5 percent, while the repayment period can be extended up to 20 years. These benefits, together with the lack of the need to provide collateral in connection with the mortgage application, have a highly significant impact on the reduction of the monthly installment, making the new products, and consequently their lender, highly competitive.
Another new feature introduced by ČSOB aim at facilitating the relationship between customers, real estate agents, and credit institutions is Iguu, an online platform that seeks to simplify and speed up the management of mortgages and other housing-related services. Worth noting, in particular, is the Fincheck service, an automated and integrated procedure of knowledge and analysis of the history and financial health of a subject, useful both for the personal assessment of what can be requested and to facilitate relations with third parties. The information provided is regularly updated and accurate, as well as modulable on different levels of detail in order to avoid information overload.
ČSOB market leader
Last year confirmed the leading role of the ČSOB Stavební spořitelna Group in supporting the construction market, reporting 152,000 new building savings contracts, reaching a market share of 30%. It is also worth noting the increasingly important role of unsecured loans, already representing a 90% share and up by a quarter compared to the previous period
ČSOB proves itself capable of solving a high variety of customer needs, including apparently non-standard real estate purchases. Last year, the total volume of the mortgage portfolio rose to 389 billion crowns, and that of savings loans to 122 billion crowns.
Source: https://www.csob.cz/csob/servis-pro-media/tiskove-zpravy?id=TZ240104
Image source: https://www.etmoney.com/
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