This report analyses the housing lending in the Czech Republic for the 1Q2013. You will find all the necessary details regarding volume growth (for both, the mortgage as well as Building Society lending), market share, margin and asset quality development in the mortgage segment. Also, based on the example of Hypotecni Banka, we calculate profitability of the mortgage busines for each bank.
This report focuses specifically on development in Raiffeisenbank CR in the 1Q2013. The key highlights are:
Mortgage loan book is still 6% down yoy...
Raiffeisenbank’s mortgage loans increased 0.16% qoq in 1Q13. Despite being still 5.6% down when compared to a year ago, the fall seen in the years 2011-2012 seems to be over now. But, the loans provided by Raiffeisen’s building society continued falling, 1.2% qoq in 1Q13.
...but 1Q13 confirms the worst might be over
Following the aggressive period in 2005-2008 when Raiffeisenbank increased market share in mortgage lending from 2.6% to 9.3%, the bank has been backing off from its conquered positions. At the end of 2012, the bank held 7.26% of the market losing a further 125 bp during the year.
Relatively weak capitalization, funding constraints, already high exposure to the housing market and the expiry of a large part of the portfolio seem to be among the reasons for the retreat.
Second half of 2012 and 1Q13 suggest however that the bank is coming back to the business. From its lows in 1Q12, Raiffeisen sold 7.5% of total new loans in 3Q12, 9.1% in 4Q12 and 9.5% in 1Q13 regaining some of its old positions.
With a capital adequacy ratio over 12% and loans to deposits at 106% at the end of March, Raiffeisenbank has still a capacity to grow in the coming quarters.
Mortgage lending – 20% of Raiffeisen’s profit?
Mortgage loans represented almost 35% of Raiffeisen’s total loans at the end of 1Q13. That is up from 13% seen at the end of 2004. Together with its 10% stake in Raiffeisen Building Society, Raiffeisenbank’s housing loans represent 37% of total loan book, the second highest figure on the market among universal banks, just behind ČSOB.
When Hypoteční banka’s financials are taken as a benchmark (for more details see page 9), we believe the mortgage lending business generates around 20% of Raiffeisenbank’s operating and nearly a third of bank’s total net profit now:
This is the highest share on the market (with the exception of the specialized mortgage players such as Hypoteční and Wustenrot. ČSOB follows with a 20% share while mortgage business seems to form 10-15% of total profits at Komerční Banka, Česká Spořitelna or UniCredit according to our calculation.
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