According to a survey by OP Financial Group, what people in Finland value most in a home loan is reasonable monthly costs and predictability. About one third of the respondents said that one of the most important properties of a loan is being able to save money while repaying the loan.

The survey was commissioned by OP Financial Group from Taloustutkimus, and its respondents were asked to state the three properties they found most important in a home loan. People in Finland found reasonable monthly costs to be the most important property in a home loan. It was selected by 47 per cent of the respondents as one of their top three properties. Nearly as many respondents, 43 per cent of those who have taken out a home loan, specifically valued the predictability of the loan, meaning that the monthly instalment stays the same from month to month.

"The ongoing discussion about the changes in interest rates have increased customer demand for stability and predictability. Fortunately, the different loan types and interest options allow you to find a suitable solution. For example, you can set a fixed interest rate for your loan if the predictability of monthly costs is most important to you, or you can add interest rate protection to your loan if you want to limit the monthly costs even if interest rates rise," says Hanna Heinonen, SVP, Mortgages, Retail Loans and Real Estate Business at OP Financial Group.

The demand for interest rate protection has slightly decreased as interest rates have increased. Currently, about one third of OP Financial Group's home loan portfolio has interest rate protection.

Saving while repaying the home loan considered important

Being able to save while paying monthly instalments and keeping the loan's interest expenses as low as possible was considered important by 29 per cent of the survey's respondents.

"When the interest rates started to rise, many changed their home loans from a 12-month Euribor rate to a 6-month or 3-month Euribor rate. Now, the 12-month Euribor has again been rising in popularity since October. I think it's a very good thing that nearly one third of people with a home loan consider it important to save money in other ways than just by investing in their home," says Heinonen.

About one in five respondents considered one of the most important properties of home loans to be the fact that their family's finances would be protected even in the most difficult life situations and that the loan would have flexibility according to their life situation.

"Although people consider loan flexibility to be important, surprisingly few people have relied on them as interest rates have increased. Most customers have continued paying their home loans normally according to their repayment plans, even during the last year. Last year, we received 11 per cent fewer applications for changing repayment plans than in the year before that," says Heinonen.

A total of 1,600 people in Finland responded to the survey commissioned by OP from Taloustutkimus at the turn of the year.

What do you think is most important in a home loan?

1.Having reasonable monthly costs is most important to me in a home loan 47%

2.I want the monthly instalment of my home loan to be the same from month to month 43%

3.I want to keep my home loan's interest expenses as low as possible 29%

4.I want to be able to save money while repaying the loan 29%

5.It is important to me to be able to protect my family's finances even in the most difficult life situations 21%

6.I want my home loan to have as much flexibility as possible according to my life situation 20%

7.It is important to me to be able to repay my loan as quickly as possible 12%

8.It is important to me that my monthly loan instalment stays reasonable, even when the loan amount is at its highest 11%

9.It is important to me to know when my home loan will be repaid in full 10%

10.I want my home loan to be as small as possible 10%

11.I want to prepare for changes in my life situation (such as unemployment) that can occur during the loan term 10%

12.I want to protect my family's situation if something were to happen to me during the loan term 8%

13.I want to prepare for changes in my state of health by taking out insurance 3%

14.I want to also save money during the loan term for an upcoming home change 3%

15.I am willing to pay for having flexibility for the repayment of my loan if necessary 0%

Conducted in December 2023, the OP Financial Group survey was answered by a nationally representative online panel of 18–79-year-old people in Finland [n=1,619]. The number of respondents varies by question. The survey was conducted for OP Financial Group by Taloustutkimus. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for the entire respondent group.