According to Polish daily Puls Biznesu, citing Banking Association data regarding monthly sales of mortgage loans, October was most productive month in 2012. Monthly sales has increased to PLN 3.16bn (up 9.5% m/m). Leading banks include PKO (434,6 GBp, -0,21%) (PLN 911m), Bank Pekao (PLN 603), Getin (PLN 298m) and (6,91 EUR, -0,48%) BSK (PLN 200m). Government subsidy program (RnS) has been supporting sales with its share in the total sales reaching 27.8%.
Our view:
With government subsidy program (roughly half of interest payment to be subsidized for first 8 years) fading at the end of this year it should be somewhat expected that applications will pick up in the 4Q. Especially that the new subsidy program is only drafted and there is no date of final implementation, while real estate prices have been on the downward trend for some time now. There was no change at the top sales positions of banks. The news is somewhat positive, as processing of mortgage applications should also support sales at least in the first months of 2013.