The launch of the Affordable Mortgage program will lead to an annual growth of the mortgage portfolio by 30%, thus budget expenditures on it in five years may exceed UAH 5 billion, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Kateryna Rozhkova has said.

"Theoretically, if the program runs for five years and every month they issue UAH 400 million (the average monthly issuance volumes in 2020, according to our calculations, amounted to UAH 300 million), and the annual growth of the mortgage portfolio is 30%, then in five years (according to the current level of rates) the budget will spend over UAH 5 billion on compensation," Rozhkova said on Facebook.

She recalled that the budget for 2021 provides for expenditures of UAH 2 billion for the "Available Loans 5-7-9%" program.

Deputy Finance Minister Yuriy Drahanchuk, in turn, explained in his column for the Segodnya edition that the new mortgage mechanism will be implemented through the Entrepreneurship Development Fund.

"Technically, it is not difficult. It was enough to make changes to government resolutions, according to which the fund has been financing "Available Loans 5-7-9%" to support small and medium-sized businesses throughout the year, as well as into the fund's internal documents," Drahanchuk explained.

Thus, for the start of "Affordable Mortgage," additional expenditures of the state budget at the first stage are not needed, in addition to the already provided UAH 2 billion for the work of the said fund, the deputy minister added.