After a period of impressive double-figure growth rates between 2010 and 2014, with all-time record number of mortgage loans granted in Russia in 2014, the mortgage market collapsed in 2015. Nevertheless, in 2016 the market is predicted to recover most of last year’s losses, according to PMR.

There was a 32% contraction in mortgage approvals in Russia last year, despite the fact that in March 2015 the government approved some support for the mortgage market, by subsidising mortgage interest. It is estimated that without the government’s decision on mortgage interest rate subsidies, this collapse could have exceeded 52%.

A total of about 210,600 loans were granted within the mortgage support programme in 2015 (30% of the total in Russia) at a total value of €17.2bn.

The sharp decline in the mortgage market in 2015 was caused mostly by the 4% contraction in the real disposable income of the population, and the shortage of long-term resources in the banking industry.