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Friday, 26.04.2024, 01:43
6,100 Latvian families with children have used government support to buy housing
The total amount of loan guarantees issued by Altum since the launch of the government support program in 2015 is
EUR 41.7 million, while the total value of mortgage loans granted under the
guarantee program is EUR 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 EUR 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 EUR 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.