From January, people in the Czech Republic will have to pay more for early repayment of their mortgages. The governing coalition has recently agreed that the fee will be as much as one percent of the remaining loan amount.
The amendment was proposed in this sense that a 0.25 percent fee will be possible for each year until the end of the fixed rate, but no more than one percent of the outstanding principal. Práva People’s Deputy Michael Kohajda confirmed this. The first to bring this information was Czech Television. Zbyněk Stanjura (ODS), the Finance Minister, originally proposed a two percent fee for early repayment of a mortgage, but most coalition MPs disagreed with this.
Currently, banks can charge for paying off a mortgage before the end of the fixed interest rate, in order of hundreds of crowns, to which they are entitled in the form of an administrative fee. But after the change, it will also be tens of thousands.
Finance Minister Stanjura and the banks are talking about a compromise. Stanjura described the one percent fee from the unpaid loan principal as a compromise variant that will also have his support. The head of TOP 09 MPs, Jan Jakob, specified that it should only apply to new contracts or from the moment of the new fixation.
In the event of the non-adoption of the amendment, there could be a restriction or complete disappearance of long-term mortgage fixations. MPs should vote on the new fee in mid-November. The amendment also counts on two new situations where the loan can be repaid early without sanction. That is, when settling spouses after divorce and selling real estate two years after its purchase. Today, this is possible in difficult life situations, or each year after signing the contract, up to 25 percent of the principal can be repaid.