SKB-Bank offered its clients 229 mortgages in January-March 2007 compared with 207 a year earlier and only 159 in the first quarter of 2005. 32 mortgages were actually given to borrowers wishing to invest in apartments currently under construction.

SKB-Bank’s mortgages are now available not only to people living in Yekaterinburg but also to dwellers of other cities who can visit the bank’s subsidiaries located all over Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Volgograd Region, and Rostov Region; one third of mortgages provided in the first quarter of 2007 was issued outside Yekaterinburg.

‘This impressive increase in the number of mortgage loans has to do with both growing housing demand and the bank’s improved loan-issuing techniques. Yekaterinburg, to name just one, now has a specialized three-floor Mortgage Lending Center where the potential borrowers can meet up with realtors, appraisers, insurers, and banking experts without setting foot outside the building,’ explains SKB-Bank’s Mortgage Lending Director Anna Samuilova.