Over 6,100 families have used state support to buy housing

Take note – story published 6 years ago

Development Finance Institution Altum (Altum) has so far granted over 6,100 loan guarantees under the government support program helping families with children buy their first housing, Altum representatives told LETA.

The total amount of loan guarantees issued by Altum since the launch of the government support program in 2015 is €41.7 million, while the total value of mortgage loans granted under the guarantee program is €368 million.

Altum CEO Reinis Berzins said that most families have been using the support program to buy medium-size apartments and the average size of the loans they receive with the help of Altum guarantees is €60,000. “This is mostly housing in multi-apartment houses, built in previous years, often these are two-floor apartments. The families’ first choice is to buy finished housing, only 4% of families take loans for construction. The share of the new projects is below 10%, and private dwelling houses are also bought less frequently, in about 6% of cases,” Berzins said.

The Altum guarantees reduce the size of down payment necessary for receiving a housing loan by €6,700 on average, which is the average size of the guarantees granted so far.

According to Altum data, the support program is used by families across Latvia, although the highest number of loan guarantees has been issued in Riga (66%). Of all the loan guarantees 14% have been granted to families in Vidzeme, 9% in Kurzeme, 7% in Zemgale and 3% (161 families) in Latgale.

In order to help families with children make down payment when buying an apartment or starting construction of a house, the Cabinet of Minister in 2014 approved a support program under which Altum grants and manages housing loan guarantees. The size of the loan guarantee depends of the number of children in the family.

Seven commercial banks - Citadele, SEB Banka, Swedbank, Nordea Banka, DNB Banka, ABLV Bank and Baltikums Banka/Blue Orange – grant mortgage loans to families with children under the government support program.

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