Americans Seeking Denmark’s Negative Rate Mortgage

Sep 05, 2019

A bank in Denmark that made history last month for offering the world’s first negative interest rate mortgage is getting inquiries from American borrowers eager to obtain the product.

Last month, Jyske Bank began offering a 10-year home loan that charges its borrowers -0.5 percent a year. With this product, borrowers make their usual monthly payments, but the amount that is outstanding is reduced each month by more than the borrower paid. According to Yahoo Finance, the bank received about 90 inquiries from Americans in the weekend after the product was introduced, and is still getting attention from across the Atlantic.

“What I have said to the Americans is that they have to have a Danish property to get such a loan,” said Jyske Bank Housing Economist Mikkel Høegh. “Some of the Americans then asked if I could help them buying a property in Denmark. I can’t with that but we can help them with the funding if they get the house.”

And while American borrowers do not qualify for this Danish mortgage, its intended audience has responded positively.

“The experience has been quite good,” Høegh said, adding that Denmark is undergoing a new wave of mortgage refinancing and that mortgage debt is up in 88 of the country’s 98 municipalities.

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Phil Hall

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Sep 05, 2019

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