The lending regulations
The latest lending regulations govern the banks’ practices and options for granting a customer a loan.
Here you can read more about what’s new and how the changes affect you as a loan customer. If your loan application was rejected before the new year, you should perhaps apply again now. Contact us for good advice about this.
July 14, 2025
eiendoms-admin
The new lending regulations apply from 31. December 2024.
The Ministry of Finance has set a framework for how banks can lend money. This is important to ensure a more sustainable debt situation for most people. The lending practice for mortgages has been governed by regulations since 2015, but in recent years there have been some changes that are worth noting. From 1. July 2023, the regulation was extended to also apply to loans secured by collateral other than housing, such as boat loans and car loans.
House prices have increased a lot in recent years and so has household debt. This is the reason why in 2015 the Ministry of Finance made a regulation regulating lending practices for mortgages. Since then, the Mortgage Regulations have been further developed and amended several times. The consumer loan regulations were established in 2019, where it was decided that the maximum maturity of new consumer loans should be 5 years.
Among other things, the regulation sets requirements for:
- The customer’s serviceability, how much does the customer have left over to pay the loan after other fixed costs have been paid?
- Debt ratio: How much debt does the customer have in relation to income?
- Loan-to-value ratio: How large is the loan in relation to the home’s value?
- Requirement to pay installments on mortgages with a loan-to-value ratio of over 60% and all consumer loans
For those of you who want to buy a rental property in Oslo, the new lending regulations will benefit you. You can now borrow up to 90% of the value of a second home in Oslo, compared with 60% previously.
Requirements in the Lending Regulations:
Mortgage
Consumer loans
Other mortgages
Maximum loan-to-value ratio, repayment loan
90 percent
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Maximum loan-to-value ratio, credit facilities
60 percent
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Demand for installment payment
Loans with a loan-to-value ratio above 60 percent
All loans
–
Maximum debt ratio
500 percent (all debt combined)
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–
Interest rate stress test when assessing serviceability
The higher of 7 percent interest and an interest rate increase of 3 percentage points on the customer’s total debt
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Flexibility quota
10 percent
(8 percent in Oslo)
5 percent
10 percent
Secondary residence in Oslo
The previous requirement for the purchase of a secondary home was a maximum loan-to-value ratio of 60%. This has now been abolished and the general requirement of a maximum 90% loan-to-value ratio will also apply to loans for the purchase of a second or third home in Oslo.
Refinancing
The regulation should not prevent the customer’s loan from being refinanced in the same bank or moved to a new bank. There are some conditions and for mortgages these are;
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that the refinancing is not larger than the existing loan
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that it is the same property that the bank receives a mortgage on, or has a similar or lower loan-to-value ratio
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has the same maturity as existing loans
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have the same or stricter requirements for installment payments.
Existing mortgages can also be replaced with a loan secured on another property. The new loan cannot have a higher loan-to-value ratio than the existing loan and the size of the loan, term and installments must be the same.
For consumer loans and mortgages other than home loans, the terms are:
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the new loan is not higher than the existing loan
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that the sum of interest, fees and other costs does not increase.
More information about the biggest changes in the lending regulations:
The requirement for interest rate stress tests is changing:
Previously, banks had to take into account an interest rate increase of 5 percentage points when assessing the customer’s ability to pay. They then used today’s floating interest rate and the plus of an extra 5 per cent as a starting point. The customer then had to be able to afford to pay this sum if the interest rate rose by 5 per cent more than the current interest rate. From 01. From January 2023, banks must add a stress interest rate of at least 3 per cent or a total interest rate of 7 per cent when assessing the customer’s serviceability. Many customers who, before the New Year, had their loan application rejected or received a lower financing certificate than they wanted, should apply again now.
| Current interest rate on the customer’s debt: | Interest the bank must calculate: |
| Higher than 4 percent | Interest rate + 3 percentage points |
| Less than 4 percent | 7 percentage points |
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