The Czech National Bank has eased restrictions that limit who qualifies for a mortgage loan, part of a package of measures designed to promote economic growth. Applicants will only have to prove that they have saved 10 percent of the value of the home they wish to buy but will be required by banks to prove they have sufficient income to cover the payments. The move comes at the same time as interest in mortgages has dipped even further in a sign of growing uncertainty over employment. Hospodářské noviny reports that the conditions banks will now apply to mortgage applicants are now the same as they were three years ago when the Czech National Bank first began implementing measures to cool down what it viewed as an overheated market. HN also notes that the CNB continues to beleive that the residential market is overvalued by as much as 25 percent. Before the pandemic, applicants had to be able to deposit at least 20 percent of the value of the property and the monthly payments couldn’t exceed 45 percent of their monthly salary.
