Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged on Friday to maintain the Russian mortgage market and lower mortgage interest rates in order to boost market growth.
"At the end of last year, I requested additional resources to maintain mortgage rates, for the market to provide moderate realty loans," Putin said during a meeting of a presidential council on national projects and democratic policies, adding the annual mortgage interest rate "should not exceed 11%" and the down payment "should not be more than 20% of the housing cost."
The prime minister said such measures would attract "those who are ready to take out a home loan, but are not able to pay 14-15% for it, as is now required by banks," adding the 11%-rate is also quite high.
"We should try to make the rate even lower," he said.
Putin said the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, had already passed a bill lowering mortgage down payments, and expressed hope that the Federation Council, the upper house, would also support the bill.
Putin said the state would provide commercial banks with a total of 250 billion rubles (more than $8.3 billion) in aid so they could grant moderate mortgage loans.
"We should maintain the market and support citizens who want to improve their living conditions. We should warm up the market," he said.
TYUMEN, February 26 (RIA Novosti)
