POLSTR instead of WIBOR. At least seven banks have switched the benchmark for new mortgages

According to a list compiled by ohipotece.pl, PKO BP and PKO Bank Hipoteczny switched to POLSTR on 3 September. Then came Erste (26 September), ING (28 September), Pekao and Millennium (1 October), VeloBank (5 October) and mBank (7 October). The site notes that the list may not be complete.

mBank's offer

Since 7 October mBank has offered loans based on POLSTR 1M Stopa Składana (a compounded rate) or with a rate fixed for 5 years. It no longer sells new WIBOR loans. Existing WIBOR customers are not affected, PRNews reported. The bank's margin is 1.96 percentage points at an LTV of up to 80% and 2.41 points at a higher LTV. LTV is the ratio of the loan amount to the value of the property.

How much is the instalment

In September POLSTR 1M stood at 3.55%, WIBOR 3M at 3.86% and WIBOR 6M at 3.89%. Finwire calculated an example for a PLN 750,000 loan over 25 years. The instalment on POLSTR is about PLN 4,710 a month. With a fixed rate of 6.20% it is about PLN 4,920.

Planned rules

Under a Finance Ministry draft, new contracts are to be based on POLSTR from 1 January 2027. Contracts signed by the end of 2026 may stay on WIBOR until the end of 2036. Finwire notes this is only a planned rule. Polish Bank Association president Tadeusz Białek told Interia that “because of overpayments, the average lifetime of a mortgage in Poland is between 8.5 and 9 years”.