YEREVAN, March 17. / ARKA /. The chairman of the Union of Banks of Armenia Samvel Chzmachyan predicted today a 10-20% rise in mortgage lending this year, citing the findings of a survey conducted by the union among Armenian commercial banks.

According to the Central Bank data, the overall mortgage lending in 2014 saw a 20% rise from the previous year to 172.4 billion drams

According to Samvel Chzmachyan, the growth will be driven by a law passed by the parliament last year which was designed to exempt companies in the country’s border settlements from VAT, income and profit taxes. The law also allows individuals servicing mortgage loans to seek a refund in the amount of their income tax.

Chzmachyan also noted that the decision of the Central Bank to raise the refining rate by 1 percentage point to 10.5% has created good conditions for home loans.

In a related development, Hrach Hakobyan, the head of Oliver Group real estate assessment agency, told a news conference today that home prices will grow this year insignificantly.

According to Oliver Group’s study, the largest home growth price last year was reported by Avan district in Yerevan where the price per square meter of housing rose form 258,000 drams in 2013 to 283,000 drams. The smallest rise was in Erebuni district, where the price rose form 259,000 drams to 261,000 drams.

According to official data, real estate transactions in 2014 grew by 12.3% from 2013 to 214,000, including 53,000 home sales and buying deals. ($1 - 479.74 drams). -0-