Czech mortgage banks are seeing a record interest in mortgage loans in the first quarter, their data have shown, and GE Money Bank estimates a 23-percent growth in mortgage lending to Kc124bn for this year.

Last year, mortage banks lent Kc101bn to their clients.

Hypotecni banka provided mortgages worth Kc8.6bn in Jan to March, 44 percent more on the year.

Mortgages at Raiffeisenbank totalled Kc3.5bn, a growth of 153 percent yr/yr, GE Money Bank granted mortgages worth Kc1.73bn, more than twice as much as in the same period last year.

Ceska sporitelna, the biggest mortgage bank in the Czech market, will disclose figures on April 18.

The average size of a mortgage loan is also growing. It was up by 19 percent at Kc1.6m at Hypotecni banka last year, or it rose by nearly Kc300,000 to Kc1.53m at Raiffeisenbank.

Experts assign the good results to low interst rates or new products of the mortgage banks, among others.

"Interest in mortgages will remain high for the rest of the year and loans will still be available," said Hypotecni banka CEO Jan Sadil.