Norway estate boom!

Norway big city skyline

The Norwegian regulators should impose more restrictive rules for the housing market compared to those in force abroad. This is because house prices and private debt have reached record levels, very different from those reported in the rest of the Old Continent. To make known, Bloomberg agency reported, was Morten Baltzersen, the number one of the Authority for the Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) in the Nordic country.

"Our starting point is some concern for the growth of private debt and real estate prices in Norway," he said. And the measures taken will not be in line with the rest of Europe because - he said - the starting situation is very different.

To contribute to a lending boom of the families were very low interest rates, falling unemployment and rising wages in a country that is ranked fourth in the world for per capita income. And while the rest of the continent was gripped by the eurozone debt crisis, Norway real estate prices have gained 30% since 2008.

Last year, the authority has received from the Government with the task of drawing up new rules for the issuance of bonds, literally exploded since 2007.

A concern is the increase in the use of loans as collateral. Baltzersen preferred not to disclose details of the proposed agency, which will be presented in early March.

Another idea being considered by regulators mail is to modify the risk weighting of loans in such a way as to require banks to set aside larger capital reserves to protect themselves from losses, dampening the boom in the provision of real estate loans.