Romania could witness doubling of its mortgage market by 2009

The Romanian mortgage market could double next year to reach 8 billion Euros, according to Ana Cernat, mortgage loans division manager with Bancpost.

Although the mortgage loans market could double, it still has a very low percentage of GDP when compared to most European countries. Mortgages stood at 3.4% of the GDP at the end of November last year; GDP in 2007 was estimated to be 389.8 billion LEI.

Bancpost is Romania's sixth lender by assets. The bank last year held a 4.9% stake in the market in terms of the total volume of loans. Bancpost reported a 25.5 million LEI net profit in 2007 after suffering losses the year before.

Cernat also estimated that the total market in guaranteed loans will reach 10 billion Euros in 2009. Finally Cernat notes that in the future people will contract more loans in Euros rather than in other currencies partially because most of the clients' spending, including utilities, is calculated in accordance with the single European currency.