First Home Programme to continue until at least 2021

The First Home Programme will continue until at least 2021, and banks have started to come up with similar loan packages, the National Loans Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (FNGCIMM) Director General Alexandru Petrescu told AGERPRES on Friday. 

"Last year we had a sum of 2.94 billion lei for this programme, and this year 2.5 billion lei has been already almost exhausted," Petrescu said. 

According to him, for the next three years, the allocations will be of two billion lei annually, and in 2021 the ceiling will reach 1.5 billion lei. 

"Undoubtedly, there are guarantees that this programme will continue until at least 2021. It is a strategy approved by the Romanian Government on November 29, 2016," the FNGCIMM official pointed out. 

He added that since 2009, when the programme was launched, there have been a number of recalibrations that were made for the benefit of those who accessed the funds so that they could repay the loans, proof to that being the low default rate of 0.3pct. 

According to him, banks have started to come up with similar real estate lending packages, even with almost similar names: First Apartment, First At Home and First Property. 

"This was our goal: for the banks to take over the programme, through their prudence and risk policies, and come with their own packages, so that the programme is reaching indeed its goal," Petrescu added.