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The central bank is concerned with a 42% price gap between the primary and secondary housing markets as of October 1, Yelizaveta Danilova, head of the financial stability department, said on November 1. "The average price on the primary market was 42% higher than on the secondary as of October 1,” Danilova said. “We see that the gap has widened rather than narrowed with time. Before the start of the beneficial (mortgage) programs it stood at about 10%, it grew in the last few years." The price increase means that housing affordability did not grow at all as calculated per square meter, in spite of record low mortgage rates, she said.
8.1.8 Sberbank news
The net profit of Russia’s top bank Sberbank amounted to 132.9bn rubles in October, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), the bank said in a report on November 10.
The bank did not publish its financial reports last year, and did not provide figures for October 2022.
Sberbank published abbreviated financial results for 10M23 under RAS, reflecting net profit of RUB 133 billion. for October (close to the September level) and 1,262 billion rubles. for 10M23 (within market expectations). Return on equity remained above the long-term average at 23.5% in 10M23 and 25.4% in October. Net interest income increased slightly relative to September, while fee income was below the 3Q23 average. At the same time, in October, expenses for reserves and revaluation of loans decreased significantly, according to the bank’s comments, due to the one-time impact of the strengthening of the ruble. Without taking this effect into account, the cost of risk was fairly stable at 1.3%. Loan portfolio quality remained strong, while origination activity declined, reflecting the market's gradual response to rate increases. In October, the growth of the corporate loan portfolio slowed to 0.9% m/m after a monthly increase of 2.3–3.6% in 3Q23. The growth of household debt amounted to 2.7% m/m after 3.6–3.8% in August-September, and was supported primarily by mortgages (growth of 3.5% m/m) with a slowdown in the growth of consumer loans to 0.5 % mm. Since the beginning of the year, the growth of the loan portfolio of individuals and legal entities without taking into account currency revaluation amounted to 26% and 22%, while funds in customer accounts in these categories increased by 16% and 21%, respectively. Capital adequacy (N1.0) remained at a high level of 13.0%, ensuring compliance with all regulatory requirements of the Bank of Russia without taking into account temporary relief, and without creating pressure on capital and the ability to distribute profits over the medium term.
The net profit of the bank amounted to 1.262 trillion rubles in January–September, and the return on equity reached 25.3%. The retail loan
79 RUSSIA Country Report December 2023 www.intellinews.com