Mortgage burden or what to do for borrowers who have taken out a loan for housing in foreign currency

Recommendation points

• Restructuring
• Refinancing at another bank
• Apartment for sale
• Going to economy mode

The problem of the instability of the ruble exchange rate hit hard on the family budget of Russians who took out a mortgage in foreign currency, because monthly loan payments are becoming more and more, which cannot be said about income. What steps should be taken by owners of a mortgage agreement in order to somehow reduce financial losses?

Restructuring

This concept means changing the terms of the mortgage agreement in order to ease the burden on the debtor. The bank can extend the term of the loan, recalculate and fix it at the exchange rate in rubles or postpone the payment. In order to achieve restructuring, the borrower needs to contact the bank that issued him the mortgage and write an application for restructuring the loan, indicating in it the reasons why he needs to recalculate the mortgage, as well as attach documents confirming his identity, financial condition and employment to the application … A complete list of required documents can be found on the borrowing bank’s website .

After the specialists of the financial institution check the submitted documents, a decision will be made to satisfy or refuse the client in restructuring.

This option is suitable for borrowers whose income level has not significantly decreased since the time of the mortgage registration. If the client lost his job, began to receive a much lower official salary, or already had problems with payments in the past, the chances that the bank will agree to restructure his loan are very small .

Refinancing at another bank

Many financial institutions offer borrowers to refinance a mortgage issued by another bank. True, in this case it will be necessary to conclude a new mortgage agreement and its conditions will be more stringent than before..

Nevertheless, this option of refinancing can be beneficial to the borrower if he is unable to pay the mortgage in full, and his bank does not agree to restructuring.

Before contacting another financial institution, you must carefully read the mortgage agreement. The borrower has no chance of refinancing in another bank if the mortgage agreement stipulates a ban on refinancing in another financial institution.

The list of banks that currently have a refinancing program is very long. For example, the Bank of Moscow is currently offering refinancing of loans from other banks in rubles at 10.95% per annum. In order to obtain consent for refinancing, the borrower must re-pass the solvency test, insure his property and life, and re-conduct a market assessment of the property.

Apartment for sale

Selling mortgaged property isn’t that difficult. The fact that the borrower has passed a bank check and received a loan from a financial institution should serve as an additional guarantee for potential buyers that they are not purchasing an apartment from a fraudster. The most important thing when selling such real estate is to obtain the consent of the bank for its sale.

Further, the buyer and the seller can conclude a notarized purchase and sale agreement, after which the buyer pays the debt on the loan to the bank, and the remaining part of the cost of housing is transferred to the seller. After that, the bank issues a mortgage to the buyer, and to the seller a document stating that he has no debt.

There is an option when the bank is directly involved in the sale. The buyer pays the required amount to the bank, and then the employees of the financial institution transfer the difference between the property value and the mortgage amount to the seller’s name.

Another way to get money for a mortgage apartment is the assignment of mortgage rights. But such a scheme is not yet very common, because in this case the new owner of the mortgage apartment will be obliged to pay off the remaining part of the debt under a new mortgage agreement, which he will conclude with the bank. Accordingly, it will have different conditions and rates for the loan..

Many potential buyers may be scared off by the revision of interest rates, according to the current bank rates. In addition, if the buyer has a low official salary, the bank may not agree to the assignment of the mortgage. After all, he will not have guarantees that the new borrower will be able to pay off the rest of the debt in the future..

Going to economy mode

The schemes listed above do not suit everyone. In some cases, it is much easier not to sell the apartment or restructure the loan, but to continue repaying the mortgage under the old conditions. After all, many have the opportunity to borrow the missing amount from friends or simply limit their spending in order to accumulate the funds necessary for payments to the bank.

It is most beneficial to do this for borrowers who took out a mortgage more than 5 years ago. Most financial institutions set floating rates on mortgages, which provide for annual reductions in payments. For example, borrowers who took out a loan from Sberbank in 2014 for the purchase of housing in the amount of 3,000,000 rubles, in the first year must pay 45,225 rubles a month. But by 2019, this payment will decrease by almost 50%.

In addition, there is hope that the ruble will return to its previous positions after some time. Borrowers who share a similar point of view also do not make sense to take any measures.