Federal Mortgage Lending Agency declared it was going to reduce mortgage interest rates on July 1, 2007; the lowest rate will now come to 10.75% a year.

'This reduction is part of the Affordable Housing project; provided the inflation rate drops as well, interest rates are expected to decrease even further. In fact, the lowest annual interest rate might amount to a modest 10% as soon as this year; I’d even say it’s not unlikely the rate might drop even lower. It’s true that a .25% decrease is not too much, yet what should be appreciated in this case is the very intention of the government to make mortgages more affordable,’ SKB-Bank’s Lending Director Anna Samuilova said to a UrBC reporter.

'I’d like to point out that mortgage loans are already available to quite a few social strata: one only needs to collect 10% of the future dwelling’s cost in order to apply for a bank loan; besides, lowering interest rates in not the only way of making mortgages easier to deal with. Normally, people with modest incomes cannot afford to buy a place on a mortgage because of overpriced housing (which has been brought about by keen shortage of supply) and not because of the terms the banks offer them. Therefore, to make apartments and houses truly affordable, we need a much greater scale of housing construction,’ Ms Samulova believes.

Last year, Federal Mortgage Lending Agency reduced interest rates on mortgages thrice.