40% of Russian families want to improve their living conditions

40% of Russian families want to improve their living conditions. This was reported in the press service of the Dom.RF company with reference to the results of a recent sociological survey.

“According to a VTsIOM survey commissioned by Dom.RF in 2019, the share of Russian families wishing to improve their living conditions decreased by 5 percentage points over two years and amounted to 40%. One of the main sources of financing the purchase of housing is a mortgage. More than 80% of Russian families planning to buy a home are ready to use a mortgage for this,” RIA Novosti quoted Dom.RF as saying.

The company added that there are now from 6.5 to 7 million mortgage borrowers in Russia: from January to October 2019, their number increased by 1 million. As a rule, families with children take out mortgages, and the main borrowers are specialists or middle managers aged 30-35 years with higher education.

The average mortgage payment in 2019 was 21-22 thousand rubles - about 25-30% of total household income. At the same time, 45% of borrowers have no other credit obligations, 14% have a credit card, 16% have a consumer loan, 3% have a car loan, and 18% have several different types of loans. Despite this, the average total debt burden even for such borrowers does not exceed 45% of income.

Let us recall that, according to the Bank of Russia, the weighted average mortgage rate as of November 1, 2019 decreased by 0.28 percentage points and amounted to 9.4% per annum. This is the minimum value in the history of the mortgage market - the previous historical minimum was reached in September-October 2018 (9.41%).

The target indicators of the national project “Housing and Urban Environment” indicate that this year the average mortgage rate in Russia should be 8.9% per annum, by 2021 it should drop to 8.5%, and by 2024 – to 7.9 %. However, due to the increase in the key rate by the Central Bank at the end of last year and a surge in inflation at the beginning of this year, the weighted average mortgage rate in the first half of 2019 reached 10.56%. In September it was reported that the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Finance were preparing a draft report to Vladimir Putin on the need to adjust the indicators of the national project.

In early December, Central Bank Chairman Elvira Nabiullina said that reducing mortgage rates to a level of 7-8% per annum is quite realistic in the medium term.