site.btaCentral Bank: November Mortgage Rates Stay Under 2.5%

The average annual interest rate on housing loans in Bulgaria remained below 2.5% in November, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said on Monday.

New lev-denominated mortgages were granted at an average annual rate of 2.48%, up 0.01 percentage point from October and down 0.02 percentage point from November 2024.

The annual percentage rate of charge (APRC) on housing loans, which includes all interest payments, fees, commissions and other customer-borne costs that are a condition for granting the loan, stood at 2.86% in November, compared with 2.85% in October and 2.82% 12 months earlier.

In November, the volume of new business in lev-denominated housing loans fell 8.6% month-to-month to BGN 1.111 billion. Year-on-year, however, it rose 20.4%.

Overall, housing loans in Bulgaria totalled BGN 32.14 billion at the end of November, up 27.7% year-on-year.

In November, new lev-denominated consumer loans became cheaper, with an average annual interest rate of 8.84%. The average was 9.01% in October and 9.25% in November 2024. The APRC on new consumer loans in November was 9.17%, compared with 9.33% a month earlier and 9.94% a year earlier.

New fixed-term household deposits in levs were opened in November at an average annual interest rate of 0.81%. The rate was unchanged month-to-month, while it was down 0.07 percentage point year-on-year.

The average annual interest rate on new fixed-term deposits opened in euro rose in November to 1.44% from 1.40% a month earlier. A year earlier, the average rate on euro deposits was also 1.44%.