Housing loans are breaking records despite high interest rates. Experts explain the reasons
The latest data show that these applications have been transformed into actual loan sales. BIK reported that in March, banks granted 28.8 thousand. loans, which means a year-on-year increase of 59%. and compared to February by 24%. They amount to PLN 13.34 billion, i.e. 72 percent. more than a year ago and 26.5 percent more than in February.
March sales exceeded the previous record from October 2025 by PLN 2.45 billion, or as much as 22.5%. This means that records even from the times of the mortgage boom, when the government program Safe Credit 2% was in operation, were definitely broken. It was a support instrument for people buying their first apartment, which was operational in Poland for several months from July 2023. It assumed state subsidies for mortgage installments for the first ten years of its repayment. The interest rate obtained by the borrower was approximately 2%.
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Credit Information Office
— The main reason for such high activity in this segment is the growing creditworthiness, which is the result of interest rate cuts, which dropped to 3.75% in March. , the lowest in four years. Wages are still rising, both nominally and in real terms, says Dr. Hab. Waldemar Rogowski, chief analyst of the BIK Group.
In March 2026, average wages in the corporate sector increased by 6.6%. year to year. The reference rate decreased from May 2025 to March 2026 by equal 2 percentage points. However, it is still much higher than, for example, 1.5%. before the pandemic and even more so 0.1%. in 2020-2021.
Mortgage refinancings are boosting sales
He explains that all these factors not only favor taking out new loans, but also accelerate decisions on refinancing previously taken out housing loans, most of them based on a periodically fixed – higher than the current – interest rate. According to BIK data, refinancing currently accounts for approximately 30%. new lending. To this extent, loan sales are “inflated” relative to typical demand for new real estate financing. We write more about refinancing housing loans and its benefits here.
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— An additional impulse for greater interest in housing loans was the growing geopolitical uncertainty related to the situation in the Middle East. If the conflict continues, it may lead to accelerated inflation and, consequently, to interest rate increases and increases in prices on the real estate market – says Prof. Rogowski.
The average amount of a housing loan granted reached PLN 464.45 thousand. PLN, which is also a historical record. This is an increase of 8.3%. on a year-to-year basis. This is the result not only of rising wages, but also of rising real estate prices.
AMRON-SARFiN recently reported that in By 2025, banks granted 232.6 thousand new housing loansi.e. by 15 percent. more than a year earlier, a the value of concluded contracts increased by 21%. up to PLN 103.4 billionł, which was a record level in history.
In terms of number, the record from 2021 (256.5 thousand units) remains unchallenged, and the previous highest result in terms of sales value is PLN 85.76 billion (also from 2021). AMRON-SARFiN experts assume that in 2026 the result will be comparable to 2021, i.e. sales may reach approximately 250,000. new loans. If the record from 2021 could be equaled, then – taking into account the high average amount of a new loan – the value record from 2025 would also be broken and sales would amount to PLN 113.8 billion.
