Until the second month of the year, mortgage financing is that which continues to keep the banks’ loan portfolios afloat; Despite the fact that segments such as consumption have been slowing for a year, it is growing at an annual rate of more than 4 percent, reveal the most recent figures from the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV).
One of the reasons that explains why this type of loan continues to rise is that today people have access to better interest rates and the reductions that the Bank of Mexico (BdeM) has made in its funding rate cause banks to give greater lines of credit, says Enrique Margain Pitman, executive director of mortgage and auto credit at HSBC Mexico.
According to figures from the CNBV, in February the balance of the mortgage portfolio stood at 968 billion pesos, which represented an increase of 4.5 percent compared to the same month, but last year.
Disaggregated, according to official data, the current portfolio in the segment of loans for middle and residential housing is 878 billion pesos, an annual increase of 6.3 percent. This segment supports 90 percent of the total balance of the sector.
In addition, mortgage credit is one of the segments that have one of the lowest default rates within the total credit portfolio, since the delinquency rate (Imor) until February was 3.50 percent or the equivalent of 33,880 million of pesos.
In an interview with The Day, Margain Pitman details that mortgage credit during the first months of the year looks very similar to the start of 2020, a fact that is good, since interest rates prevail at their lowest level.
For each point that the rate decreases, the amount rises 8%
Throughout the pandemic, it was observed that banks reduced their interest rates in line with the reductions in the central bank’s funding rate, a fact that caused the lines of credit to be higher for people.
“There is a trend, we are giving less loans at the moment, but they are for a higher amount … Interest rates went from 10.5 percent to 9 percent, credit lines increased almost 12 percent on average, because for each point percentage that the rate decreases, the amount of the credit increases almost eight percent “, said the director of HSBC Mexico.
He exemplified that, if the average financing was one million 500 thousand pesos, it is now one million 700 thousand pesos. That causes people to want to take out a mortgage; When the rate drops, clients seek to migrate a financing to a less expensive one and obtain better conditions.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Finance, within the framework of the 84th Banking Convention, announced that it would provide incentives for banks to reduce rates on new loans, including mortgages. In this regard, Enrique Margain considers that mortgage rates are at historic lows.
“Everything that the Treasury announced will help, but the challenges to continue lowering mortgage rates have to do with credit behavior, that is, overdue portfolio, restructuring programs, and to the extent that the issue is contained, it will depend on what it is. what happens ”, he specified.
The specialist added that the mortgage portfolio of the banks is close to reaching an amount of one trillion pesos, and with the launch of new products and the growth of the economy, mortgage financing could continue to support the bank’s total portfolio and give more credits of this type.
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