OREANDA-NEWS. In December 2014 the Supervisory Board of the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending approved a unified social standard unifying the terms of housing mortgage lending for priority social groups.

The main purpose of the social standard is to fix the best practices of social mortgage products accumulated by AHML during all previous years. Starting from 2015 all social products of the Agency will meet this standard.

The list of categories of citizens the social standard is applied to is based on the priority list of social categories specified in the Russian Government Resolution No. 404 of May 5, 2014 "On some issues of the implementation of the Russian Family Housing programme under the state programme of the Russian Federation "Provision of affordable and comfortable housing and communal services to citizens of the Russian Federation".

The rate on credits within the social standard is set in accordance with Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 600 of May 7, 2012 "On measures to provide citizens of the Russian Federation with affordable and comfortable housing and to improve the quality of housing and communal services" and cannot be higher than the index of inflation, plus the margin the value of which is fixed in the Russian Government Resolution No. 323 of April 15, 2014 "On approval of the state programme of the Russian Federation "Provision of affordable and comfortable housing and communal services to citizens of the Russian Federation" (for 2015 the margin amounts to 3,8 pp).

In respects of the products within the social standard for borrowers who purchase housing under the Russian Family Housing programme (including borrowers who purchase housing under a shared-equity construction contract), "Social mortgage: apartment" and "Social mortgage: house", for January 2015 the rate has been set at 12.84% per annum with the loan amount of not more than 1.5 million roubles. The rate is unified and does not depend on the term and amount of the down-payment on the loan and is fixed for the entire loan term. The minimum down-payment remains at 10%. The rate does not increase at the stage of construction. Interest rates within the programmes "Social mortgage: apartment" and "Social mortgage: house" will be adjusted monthly by the Agency to reflect changes in the consumer price index (inflation).

Property for the Russian Family Housing programme is selected by the subjects of the Russian Federation in accordance with the Russian Government Resolution No. 404 of May 5, 2014. The combination of housing price being 20% below the market price and the preferential interest rate on the loan will allow to reduce the financial burden on the families participating in the Russian Family Housing programme by 50% as compared to a mortgage loan on the current market conditions.