MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd June, 2020) Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested on Tuesday raising the purchase price limit for new houses as part of the state's soft mortgage program launched in April to revive the virus-hit market.
The government is subsidizing buyers of new homes to allow for mortgages with a 6.5 percent interest rate. The property price is capped at 8 million rubles ($116,600) in Moscow and St. Petersburg and 3 million elsewhere in Russia.
"We should now expand the possibilities for finding comfortable and modern homes. Therefore I propose that the price ceiling of the soft mortgage scheme for the purchase of a new home be raised from 3 million to 6 million and to 12 million in the largest metropolitan areas," Putin said in a video address to the nation.
The program will last until November, while the below-market interest rate will be fixed for the duration of the mortgage agreement but no longer than 30 years. The Russian mortgage market slumped in the spring after the country went into lockdown to limit the spread of the new coronavirus.
