PKO BP launched operations in the UK nearly six months ago. It opened its outlet in London in order to lure Polish emigrants. It turned out, however, that it found completely new clients in London.
“We observe outstanding number of Britons being interested in our credits”, Bartlomiej Vytlacil, head of foreign banking at PKO BP said.
In the UK, housing prices are extremely high while problems with subprime credits slowed down the market. New EU countries are perceived as extremely safe place to invest in housing. The Britons buy flats abroad not to move there but to sell them in the future. They are mainly interested in apartments and their credits are quite high.
Batrlomiej Vytlacil admits, however, that the demand for mortgage loans is lower due to worse situation on the housing market in Poland.
“We expected the demand would be bigger. Nevertheless we confirm earlier plans, i.e. 500 credits worth over PLN 100m (EUR 29.2m)”, he said.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.292)