In the past year, mortgage rates have risen sharply at the same time as inflation has run rampant. And the banks are now tightening the requirements on mortgage customers. Higher interest rates and tougher so-called “left to live on” calculations have meant that many have to borrow less money for home purchases than before.
For some customers, it goes so far that they are “stuck” in their bank when they get the nob from their competitors.
– It can be difficult to get a loan, it can be difficult to extend your loan and it can be difficult to change banks, says Christina Sahlberg, savings economist at the comparison site Compricer.
She is supported by Anneli Adler, head of private markets at Danske bank.
– Yes, and this mainly applies to customers who have borrowed quite heavily in recent years, she says.
More applications are accepted
A mortgage borrower with whom SVT has been in contact describes with surprise how he is refused to move his mortgage to another bank despite the family’s good income and low loan-to-value ratio.
And for those mortgage borrowers who cannot compare banks to each other, there is a great risk that the interest cost will be even higher.
– It will be tough. You don’t have that much of a competitive advantage when you can’t threaten to switch, says Christina Sahlberg at Compricer.
Both Compricer and Zmarta, another loan intermediary, state that the percentage of mortgage applications that are nobbed has increased during the year. Figures from Statistics Norway also show that Swedes’ mortgage debt shrank in February – for the first time in 18 years.
Mortgage rates are expected to rise further
The bank that currently has the highest discount rate (7 percent) is Danske bank.
– It happens that we refuse certain types of customers a little more often than we have done in the past, says Anneli Adler, head of private markets at Danske bank.
On Wednesday, the Riksbank announced that they are raising the key interest rate by another 0.50 percentage points to 3.5 percent, which is expected to cause mortgage interest rates to rise even more.
