With the slowdown of the real estate market and the European Central Bank (ECB) still not reducing interest rates, buyers looking for new homes have a new but temporary opportunity to save, says expert Edita Gudauskienė, head of sales and customer experience at Omberg Group, one of the largest real estate development companies in Lithuania.
"Currently, those who are trying to get loans have already noticed changes in the banks' activities, customers are also telling us about them. With EURIBOR still not falling, banks began to lower their interest rates. If a year or two ago the lowest limit was considered to be 2 percent, today the average in banks has reached 1,6, and in some banks even 1,42 percent," says E. Gudauskienė.
According to the expert, the currently offered lower interest rate is fixed for the entire period of the credit agreement.
"This means that people who have now decided to sign a housing loan agreement can take advantage of a short period of time when they will secure lower bank interest rates for a long time, and will save especially when the EURIBOR starts to decrease," says E. Gudauskienė.
According to the representative of Omberg group, some banks are going even further in order to attract customers in the slowed down market.
"For example, they announce promotions for buyers of high, A+ and A++ energy class homes in our projects and those of our other partners. Additional discounts apply to such customers in the first year of loan payment," says E. Gudauskienė.
In the assessment of the real estate expert, this behavior of banks is normal and predictable. In order to ensure the flow of new customers in a market where the opportunity to purchase housing is artificially difficult, they must at least partially compensate for the ECB's decisions by improving the conditions they offer.
"Naturally, despite all the challenges, people need homes. The most actively sold are our projects that are best suited for families. As new families are created, children are born and grow, people have to move to more spacious houses and cannot wait, even if the conditions for obtaining a loan are still difficult. Therefore, these offers from the banks become a salvation, and in the long run they will probably help save money as well," says E. Gudauskienė.
