The “First House” program is the only thing that has kept retail lending alive in Romania in recent years. Over 123,000 mortgage loans backed by state guarantees, worth more than EUR 4.7 billion, have been granted by local banks within this program. Almost half of mortgage loans in Romania are currently guaranteed by the state, writes local Economica.net.

“The loan portfolio granted via the First House represents 46% of the mortgage loan book at the end of June 2014 and 67% of the newly granted mortgage loans in the December 2012-June 2014 period, and has a low non-performing rate, of 0.03%, as of June 2014,” according to the financial stability report recently published by Romania’s National Bank (BNR).

From June to September 2014, 8,400 loans were granted via the “First House” program, totaling EUR 300 million.

editor@romania-insider.com