The move was announced by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The new bill, outlined by Morawiecki earlier this month, contains three main tenets.
Grace period
Under the plan, “four mortgage instalments in 2022 and a further four in 2023, eight in total, will be postponed at no additional cost,” Morawiecki said in a Facebook video on Tuesday.
In addition, the cost of mortgages is to be calculated according to more customer-friendly rules from 2023.
Financial aid
“Moreover, the most financially distressed families will be eligible to receive up to PLN 2,000 (EUR 430) a month towards mortgage costs,” Morawiecki added.
More support from banks
“Third, we are making banks take bigger responsibility for supporting mortgage customers,” the prime minister said on Tuesday.
The Loan Customers’ Support Fund that helps distressed borrowers is set to be increased from PLN 600 million (EUR 128 million) to PLN 2 billion (EUR 426 million) this year, with money coming from the banking sector, Morawiecki said last week.
Another PLN 2 billion will be injected into the fund from the same source next year, reporters were told.
Combating the effects of ‘Putinflation’
Announcing the Cabinet’s approval for the bill, Morawiecki also said: “We know that the times are difficult. First the pandemic and now ‘Putinflation’ - it all threatens the financial stability of Polish families … The government must provide support.”
He pledged: “We won’t allow the effects of Putin’s and Russia’s actions to thwart Polish people’s plans for the future and to ruin their dreams.”
Wednesday is day 84 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Inflation in Poland stood at 12.4 percent in year-on-year terms in April, the country’s Central Statistical Office (GUS) said last week.
The Polish central bank’s Monetary Policy Council last week raised key interest rates for the eighth consecutive time in a bid to tame surging consumer prices.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, money.pl