The battle between banks to pick up long-term mortgage clients has continued to intensify, with rates falling yet again in July. Hospodářské noviny wrotes that interest rates are as low as 2.29 percent in some cases, citing Hypoindex’s finding that the average mortgage rate in July was 2.68 percent. Golem Finance’s Libor Ostatek told HN that some clients could receive offers below 2 percent. “As recently as the beginning of the year, rates were around 3 percent and we were afraid that they’d be close to 4 percent by December,” he said. The collapse is due to what’s happening abroad, according to experts interviewed by the daily. “The rates have fallen markedly in the past weeks,” said Jakub Seidler’s ING’s chief economist. “This is because of fears about a slowing global economy and expectations that the world’s central banks will be reducing their rates.” But banks are now competing for an ever-smaller pool of potential clients and their most effective competitive weapon is price. A total of 43,489 clients signed up for mortgages over the first seven months of 2019, an 18 percent decline compared to 2018 and the CZK 99bn they borrowed was 20 percent less.
