Banks reduce interest on real estate financing

  • World Real Estate

Financing a property starts to get cheaper. This is because a dispute between banks for this market led to the reduction of the interest rates charged for the concession of real estate credit with funds from the Brazilian Savings and Loan System (SBPE). Currently, only five of the country's top banks - Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Caixa, Itaú and Santander - still have a financing rate above 10%. However, the institution guarantees that it already studies the decrease of the interest rate of real estate financing with savings resources. It is expected that the announcement of the new rates will be made in the coming weeks by the bank.

The rate reduction movement was initiated by Santander in the middle of last year and has already had effects. "In the first half of last year, real estate credit for individuals was around 300 million reais per month. In January of this year they were almost 774.73 million reais, "says the superintendent of real estate business of Santander, Fabrizio Ianelli.
The higher interest rates charged by the Caixa made the bank start the year granting less credit than its competitors. Still, the bank is the market leader, with 65% of real estate financing in the country. In January, the latest data available from the Brazilian Association of Real Estate and Savings Credit Institutions (Abecip), Santander led the ranking of disbursements for the acquisition of real estate with savings resources, followed by Itaú Unibanco, Bradesco, Caixa and Banco do Brasil .
In relation to interest rates, the lowest entry rate today is that of Bradesco (9.3% per year). Following is the Santander, with 9.49%; Banco do Brasil and Itaú have rates of 9.7%; and Caixa, with 10.25%, according to survey of the company MejorTaxa.


"As they are compound interest and a long period of financing, reaching 35 years, any variation has a big difference in the final cost of financing," says Abecip president Gilberto Duarte de Abreu Filho.


Small differences in interest rates can represent good savings at the end of the financing. Simulation of the Best Rate shows that in a financing of 300,000 reais in 30 years, it can have a difference of 52,833.36 reais, considering the rates currently practiced by Bradesco and Caixa, banks that charge the lowest and highest interest. In the Caixa, the cost would be 789,325.40 reais and in Bradesco, 736,492.04 reais. The simulation sum of all plots, without considering the addition of the Referential Rate, practiced by the market.


The president of Secovi-SP (Housing Union), Flavio Amary, points out that the reduction of real estate financing interest has two important aspects for the sector. One is that it greatly lowers the cost for those who intend to buy a financed property. Second, with lower interest rates, those who have money applied have lower profitability and look at the real estate market as a form of investment diversification.


STAY TUNED


Rafael Sasso, professor of finance and a member of the company, warned that, although important, the interest rate should not be the only point considered by the borrower when choosing its real estate financing. "The consumer has to be aware because, even with apparently low interest rates, the CET (Total Effective Cost) can be high, because there are other costs built in that can greatly increase the value of the financing," he warns.
It is worth noting that the financing of real estate with SBPE funds has plummeted in the last four years. After reaching a total of 81 billion reais in credit for the acquisition of real estate in 2014, the sector saw the liberalization of loans fall to 34 billion reais last year, reflecting the financial crisis that led to rising unemployment but also high interest rate charged in installments. At least as far as interest is concerned, financial institutions are gradually reducing the fees charged.

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