Greek Banks Target Middle-Aged Borrowers with New Mortgages

After much than a decennary of decline, Greece’s owe marketplace is showing signs of revival. Banks are ramping up efforts to pull caller borrowers, focusing connected middle-aged households arsenic they rotation retired targeted lending strategies and competitory offers.

Mortgage lending successful Greece has been shrinking since 2010, arsenic repayments connected older loans consistently outweighed caller disbursements. This trend, fueled by the country’s agelong fiscal crisis, has lone precocious begun to reverse.

Figures from May to July 2025 amusement a strong rebound: caller owe contracts reached €580 million, compared to €351 cardinal successful the aforesaid play of 2024, marking a 40% increase. Over the archetypal 7 months of 2025, caller disbursements totaled €1.06 billion, up 32% year-on-year — the archetypal clip since 2014 that lending surpassed €1 cardinal successful that period.

Bank executives stress that while this maturation is encouraging, it is not yet capable to instrumentality portfolios to sustained expansion. They estimation that yearly caller lending needs to transcend €2 cardinal to execute semipermanent stability.

Why Banks Target Borrowers successful their 40s and 50s

Financial institutions are present focusing connected customers successful their 40s and 50s, a demographic considered much creditworthy than younger applicants. These borrowers typically person higher incomes, stable employment, and respective decades earlier the precocious lending property bounds of 75. Many besides did not take retired mortgages during the post-2010 crisis, making them charismatic caller clients.

Upcoming tax reforms, including reductions for families with children, are expected to further boost their borrowing capacity.

New Mortgage Offers

To seizure this segment, banks person introduced special owe packages with debased fixed rates, some starting arsenic debased arsenic 2.5% for the archetypal three years. Certain products besides let borrowers to fastener successful monthly installments for up to 30 years, careless of European Central Bank complaint changes, astatine an mean yearly outgo of astir 4%.

Unlike erstwhile state-supported programs such arsenic “My Home II,” these caller products travel without restrictions connected the property of the spot being financed, making them much flexible for buyers.

If existent maturation continues, banks estimation that caller owe lending successful 2025 could attack €1.8 cardinal — slightly beneath their expectations but still the strongest show successful implicit a decade.