Local mortgage market grinding to a halt

The mortgage market in Greece is registering consecutive negative records, with Greece appearing as the only country in the European Union in negative territory on housing credit for the last three years.

Given that the decline in mortgage lending extends beyond the last three years due to the previous financial crisis, it becomes clear that mortgages are the major problem in the banking system, despite the fact that funding costs and interest rates for the housing market have fallen to the average European level.

Average interest rates in this country stand at 4%, following a downward trend compared to a year ago and are comparable to the average European level, but nevertheless the rate of annual financing was at -2% at the end of July against -3 % a year ago and -2% in the total of the last three years.

This follows from the report published by the European...