BCR, the largest bank in the system, has lowered the down payment it requires from its customers for real estate financing to 0% of the value of the investment, however such loans come with higher interests.
Compared with the standard loan offer that requires the customer to contribute 25%, the 0% down payment loan comes with a 0.4% higher interest rate.
Although Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) was among the first banks in the system to secure NBR's approval to apply its own lending norms last summer, it chose to postpone reducing the down payment required on real estate loans. At the time, the bank's officials explained that they would rather wait for prices on the real estate market to stabilise.
Out of the major banks only UniCredit Tiriac and Bancpost have yet to apply their own lending norms and continue to comply with those set by the National Bank of Romania, which require the customer to deposit a 25% down payment.
BCR accounts for about one quarter of the real estate financing market so that the decision to remove down payments is expected to have an impact on real estate prices.
The monthly instalment on a 100,000-euro investment project stands at 680 euros for a zero down payment loan taken out for 25 years. If the customer were contributing 25% of this value, the monthly instalment on this loan would be approximately 500 euros.
In order to receive zero down payment loans, customers must be Romanian residents and have a good payment record (i.e. no accumulated overdue payments on other loans). The bank takes into account all the incomes of the applicant and of their families, which can be verified with legally accepted documents. BCR also considers the incomes of four co-payers that do not live in the same place as the applicant.
The zero down payment loans may be as high as 300,000 euros, with an up to 25-year repay
