The excitement has subsided, but the market has held up: mortgage lending in Russia has collapsed by 40% after January's records.

      Russian banks have summarized the results of the first spring month, recording significant turbulence in the housing loan segment. While January was memorable for developers and buyers due to the race for the old conditions of the "Family Mortgage," February demonstrated a classic "post-holiday" cooling.

      According to the portal ERZ.rf, citing a study by analysts from the "Scoring Bureau" (data provided by RIA Novosti), the total volume of issued mortgage loans in February amounted to 256.7 billion rubles. This is almost half of January's result, which exceeded 424.9 billion rubles. The decline in quantitative terms is also noticeable: over the month, banks issued only 66,000 loans compared to 88,000 the previous month.

      Market participants attribute this dynamic to changes in government support parameters. From February 1, the rules for the "Family Mortgage" were adjusted, which immediately "switched off" the previously accumulated frenzied demand. However, experts note that the collapse of statistics in February was not a surprise—it is a planned correction after buyers hurriedly closed deals in January, trying to save on subsidized rates.

      Interestingly, when assessing the situation over a broader time horizon, the picture looks much more confident. According to the portal, in the first two months of the current year (January-February), 153.3 thousand mortgages were issued for a total amount of 681.6 billion rubles. This demonstrates a twofold increase compared to the same period in 2025, when 85.6 thousand loans were issued for 347.3 billion rubles.

      An assessment from the Analytical Center DOM.RF also indicates that in February, 71 thousand loans for housing purchases were issued for a total of 285 billion rubles. As a result of the first two months of 2026, the total number of individual housing loans amounted to 156 thousand loans (+84% compared to the same period last year), and the volume of lending reached 710 billion rubles (+101%).

      The key factor that allowed the market to avoid a collapse over the two-month period was the change in monetary policy. As experts note, the Central Bank's reduction of the key rate at the beginning of the year gave an impetus to the development of market mortgages. While preferential programs contracted, standard banking products began to show positive dynamics, absorbing the released demand. The alignment of statistics occurred precisely due to the growth in market mortgage issuance.

      Thus, the February downturn was merely a temporary reflection of the market's structural restructuring: the era of unrestrained growth in preferential mortgages gives way to a more balanced model, where traditional bank lending is beginning to play an increasingly significant role.