Housing loan stock nearly EUR 100 bn

New housing loan drawdowns in October 2019 amounted to EUR 1.9 bn, up by EUR 145 million on the corresponding period a year earlier. The last time housing loan drawdowns in October have exceeded this level was in 2007. The decline in the average interest rate on new housing loans has halted since the summer, and during the past three months the average rate has been 0.72%.

Recent years have seen a lengthening in the average amortisation periods of housing loans in Finland. In October 2019, the average maturity of a housing loan was 20 years 9 months. Over 68% of new housing loans were granted with a maturity of over 20 years. The share of loans with longer amortisation periods (over 29 years) in new housing loans has increased: in October 2019, the share was 7%, compared with 3% in October 2018.

Loans

At the end of October, household credit comprised EUR 16.5 bn in consumer credit and EUR 17.6 bn in other loans. New drawdowns of loans to non-financial corporations (excl. overdrafts and credit card credit) amounted to EUR 2.2 bn in October. The average interest rate on new corporate-loan drawdowns declined from September, to 2.21%. At the end of October, the stock of euro-denominated loans to non-financial corporations was EUR 90.6 bn, of which loans to housing corporations accounted for EUR 34.6 bn.

Deposits

The stock of deposits by Finnish households at end-October totalled EUR 94.4 bn and the average interest rate on the deposits was 0.11%. Overnight deposits accounted for EUR 81.5 bn and deposits with agreed maturity for EUR 4.9 bn of the deposit stock. In October, households concluded EUR 0.4 bn of new agreements on deposits with agreed maturity, at an average interest rate of 0.12%.

Related statistical data and graphs are also available on the Bank of Finland website: https://www.suomenpankki.fi/en/Statistics/mfi-balance-sheet/.