YEREVAN, December 28, /ARKA/. Average mortgage loan interest rates in Armenia dropped by a 0.7 percentage point in the first half of 2010 to 13.9%, the Central Bank of Armenia said in its report on financial stability in the first half of 2010.

According to it, commercial banks provided 2,4097 mortgage loans in Jan-June worth a total of 20.7 billion Drams, by 2.6 times more than in the same time span of 2009. The report says that despite negative trends at the local real estate market in 2008-2009 triggered by the global financial and economic crisis signs of gradual recovery began to appear in early 2010. The number of real estate deals in the first six months of this year grew by 23.5% year-on-year to 81,089, it said.

The recovery trend stepped up in the second half of the year, prompted by a bigger availability of mortgage loans and the rise in the volume of private money transfers from other countries. The real estate prices in Yerevan rose by 6.2% in Jan.,-June, in regions the growth was 3.2%. -0-