"According to Statistics Finland's statistics on indebtedness, the average housing loan of household-dwelling units with housing loans was EUR 93,620, which was in real terms around EUR one hundred less than in 2012. In the early 2000s, the average housing loans grew, on average, by ten per cent per year, but the growth has slowed down significantly in recent years."
"In the first quarter of 2014, prices for old single-family houses fell by an average of 3.3 per cent from the previous year in the whole country.
In Greater Helsinki, prices went down by 8.9 per cent from the corresponding period last year and in the rest of the country by 2.6 per cent.
Compared with the last quarter of 2013, prices of old dwellings in detached houses increased by an average of 0.7 per cent in the whole country."Source: Statistics Finland
"The Finance Ministry has agreed new proposals with the Federation of Finnish Financial Services that would seek to limit the amount banks can lend to homebuyers, in an attempt to see off a potential housing bubble.
However, the National Coalition Party’s Minister for Financial Affairs, Jan Vapaavuori, insisted on Tuesday that there are currently no signs of the market overheating, and said the announcement of the proposals was not related to the state of the property market or the mortgage market. He also claimed that the measures would help prevent problems in future.
Under the proposals, a bank may grant a mortgage of up to 90 percent of the value of a property, and buyers must put down ten percent of the price of the sale upfront. First-time buyers would have some leeway, however, with the loan-to-value cap set at 95 percent.
The tabled measures are part of the government’s banking reform bill, which is expected to have its final reading in March and April, and would not come into force before July 2016. The Finance Ministry said they decided to announce the proposals early because the issue of a potential loan ceiling has aroused widespread interest."
"The Securitas depot robbery was the largest cash robbery in British history. It took place on the evening of 21 February 2006 from 18:30 GMT until the early hours of 22 February 2006. Several men abducted and threatened the family of the manager, tied up fourteen staff members and stole £53,116,760[1][2] in bank notes from a Securitas Cash Management Ltd depot in Vale Road, Tonbridge, Kent.
The Bank of England, to whom the money belonged, was reimbursed £25 million by Securitas AB the same day, and assured the public that Securitas would make up any additional loss
On 23 February 2006 at around 19:00 police confirmed the arrest in Forest Hill, South London of a man aged 29 and a woman aged 31, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery.
On 28 January 2008, the jury returned guilty verdicts on Stuart Royle, Jetmir Bucpapa, Roger Coutts, Lea Rusha and Emir Hysenaj. John Fowler and Keith Borer were cleared of all charges.[21] The next day Emir Hysenaj was sentenced to 20 years in prison with an order that he serve a minimum of 10 years. Stuart Royle, Lea Rusha, Jetmir Bucpapa and Roger Coutts were given life sentences with an order that they serve a minimum of 15 years." Source: Wikipedia... coming back to todays story, we have just witnessed one of the biggest robbery in the history on Europe. Apparently, my sources told me that the cypriot people were robbed during the week end in broad daylight by a well organised team.
"Euro-area finance ministers agreed to an unprecedented tax on Cypriot bank deposits as officials unveiled a 10 billion-euro ($13 billion) rescue plan for the country, the fifth sinceEurope’s debt crisis broke out in 2009.
Cyprus will impose a levy of 6.75 percent on deposits of less than 100,000 euros -- the ceiling for European Union account insurance -- and 9.9 percent above that.
The measures will raise 5.8 billion euros, in addition to the emergency loans, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who leads the group of euro-area ministers, told reporters early today after 10 hours of talks in Brussels." source: Bloomberg
“Swedish households today are among the most indebted in Europe and we cannot have household lending that spirals out of control,” Martin Andersson, the director general of the Financial Supervisory Authority, said in an interview in Stockholm.
The FSA is ready to enforce a cap limiting home loans relative to property values to less than the 85 percent allowed today, Andersson said
“What we saw in the 1990s crisis was that if you bought a home with a 90 percent debt ratio in 1991, it took about six or seven yearsuntil you were back at a level where you had a property that was worth more than your mortgage,” Andersson said in the Feb. 13 interview. “That is a very long time.”
“One should be prepared for a downturn,” Andersson at the FSA said. “House prices cannot just continue upwards in eternity.” sourceSome charts ...
"In a report titled: “Just don’t look down some house markets are flying again” Goldman Sachs argues easy money policies by the world’s major central banks has had a ripple effect on countries which have avoided the worst of the global financial crisis, boosting their house prices.
According to Goldman, there now exist housing “high-flyers” - countries that have experienced real house price increases and “low-lyers” - countries where the housing market downturn appears to be more protracted.
“High flyers” include Germany, Finland, Norway, France, Switzerland and Israel as well as Canada and Australia." Source: CNBC
