(Full story)
Home financing was a sugar rush last year for lenders like BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, driving loan growth and retail revenues as rock-bottom interest rates lured investors to the housing market.
Mortgages also helped banks defend their record of lending to the French economy in the run-up to Sunday's presidential election, which has seen Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande pledge to curb lenders' risky activities and make regulated savings deposits more attractive.
The picture for real estate looks less rosy for 2012.
Annual mortgage production is seen slumping by 20 to 30 percent, against a backdrop of a decline in house prices that could reach 15 percent over the next two years, according to research from Standard & Poor's.
PARIS |
May 4 (Reuters) - French banks are facing a big
drop-off in mortgage lending this year as a sickly economy and
falling property prices put the brakes on a borrowing binge by
homebuyers.Home financing was a sugar rush last year for lenders like BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, driving loan growth and retail revenues as rock-bottom interest rates lured investors to the housing market.
Mortgages also helped banks defend their record of lending to the French economy in the run-up to Sunday's presidential election, which has seen Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande pledge to curb lenders' risky activities and make regulated savings deposits more attractive.
The picture for real estate looks less rosy for 2012.
Annual mortgage production is seen slumping by 20 to 30 percent, against a backdrop of a decline in house prices that could reach 15 percent over the next two years, according to research from Standard & Poor's.
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