Mortgage, consumer lending grows 0.9% in Jan, auto lending down 1% - Central Bank of Russia

MOSCOW. Feb 26 (Interfax) - According to preliminary data, the growth in household debt on mortgages slowed to 0.9% in January after a substantial 2.4% in December, the Central Bank of Russia said in materials on the development of the banking sector.

For the beginning of the year, when activity in the mortgage market is usually weak due to the long holidays, this is a fairly high result. The growth in January was mainly related to the tightening of the terms of the Family Mortgage program, as borrowers sought to take out a loan before the introduction of the "one subsidized loan per family" rule on February 1, the CBR said.

Issuances in January decreased almost 50% to 425 billion rubles after 811 billion rubles in December 2025, which saw a peak in demand following the announcement by the Finance Ministry of changes to state support terms. A total of 326 billion rubles were provided under the Family Mortgage program, compared to 605 billion rubles in December, which is higher than the average monthly level of 2025 amounting to 267 billion rubles.

Issuances of market-rate mortgages decreased to 77 billion rubles after 151 billion rubles in December. The average rate on market loans issued in January was 19.1% compared to 19.3% in December.

The portfolio of unsecured consumer loans increased by a rather noticeable 0.9% in January after a decrease of 0.7% in December. The revival in this segment may be associated with significant spending by the population during the New Year holidays. Some clients may have been more actively drawing on limits on existing credit cards and repaying loans early to a lesser extent, the CBR said.

The auto loan portfolio decreased 1% in January after growing 1.1% in December, which is explained by the increase in the scrappage fee from December 1 and high car prices.