Fixed rates to boost home loan market
Eurobank’s effort to bolster the domestic mortgage market by offering products with a fixed rate that ensure an unchanged installment through the repayment period, is seen as an antidote to the uncertainty the decade-long economic crisis has left behind it in Greece.
The lender’s new initiatives in the domain of housing credit, as presented last week by chief executive Fokion Karavias, aim to make the most of the favorable conjuncture to the benefit of consumers, following the drop in property prices over the course of the crisis, combined with the fall of interest rates to historic lows.
The bank estimates that in the long term – over the 20 years of a mortgage – it is more likely that rates will go up, so securing the current low rate for a long period of time is an opportunity that many potential borrowers will likely not want to miss. The scheme also reduces uncertainty and renders the cost of an investment in a house easier to calculate and compare.
The average fixed rate the bank is offering depends on the profile of each client, but it can even be below 4 percent, securing both a fixed and a low installment of less than 500 euros per month for a 100,000-euro loan that is to be repaid within 25 years.
