The other three places also belong to Russian cities: Nizhny Novgorod (3.6 of disposable income), St. Petersburg (3.3) and Kaliningrad (3.2). In addition, among the ten cities where mortgage loans are least affordable are Odesa, Kyiv, Minsk and Dnipro, Tirana and Chisinau, according to The Moscow Times.
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In Prague, mortgage loan servicing accounts for 1.4 of disposable monthly income, in Belgrade, Budapest, Lisbon and London – 1.3, in Paris and Milan – 1.2. Among the cities where mortgages require less than the average income are Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Vilnius, Zagreb, Madrid and Oslo.
Interest rate was 29 percent.
This is mainly due to market mortgage interest rates. This year, they have decreased from a practically impossible 29 percent at the beginning of last year, but remain very high: according to the Russian Central Bank, an average of about 18 percent annual interest for loans issued in June. Russians’ real disposable monetary income in the first quarter was 1.5 percent higher than last year.
Numbeo’s calculations are based on an average apartment area of 90 sq. m and a 20-year mortgage loan without a down payment. In Russia, the average figures differ. The Central Bank requires banks to provide loans with at least a 20 percent down payment; the average duration of mortgage loans granted in Russia in May was 23 years and 8 months, and exceeded 26 years at the end of last year.
According to Russian standards, 90 sq. m is a very large apartment that can be purchased with a mortgage loan. According to Sberbank data, almost half of “mortgage” apartments were one-room, 37 percent – two-room, and the average area of apartments purchased using preferential programs (which constitute the majority of mortgages) reached 48.3 sq. m. Cian estimates that the average area of apartments purchased this year is 48.1 sq. m.
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