Demand for consumer and housing loans sees rebound

Banks are recording a rebound in demand for mortgage and consumer loans, and for credit to very small enterprises, projecting the average rate of new credit at 40 percent for the 2019-2020 period.

In total, new credit in those three loan categories amounted to over 1.5 billion euros last year. According to the head of Piraeus Bank's retail banking department, Vassilis Koutentakis, the market's momentum points to new issues more than doubling in the next couple of years. That would raise the estimate for new issues to some 3 billion euros.

Out of the 1.55 billion euros of credit issued in 2018, 400 million euros concerned housing loans, 500 million regarded consumer credit and 650 million euros went to loans for very small corporations.

Piraeus Bank mortgage credit department chief Grigoris Tzanetos says there is remarkable demand for loans to purchase or...