Kredyt hipoteczny

Bank Pekao mortgage loan – review

The Bank Pekao mortgage loan is a long-term loan secured by a mortgage on a property. The purposes listed by the bank include buying a flat or house (primary and secondary market), buying a building plot for a single-family home, a summer house or a garage, buying out a municipal or company flat, and repaying a home loan taken out at another bank. It is aimed at people planning to finance their own property over many years - the maximum loan term is 30 years (360 months) - who are prepared to consider using additional bank products in exchange for a lower margin.

The loan is available to individuals with full legal capacity, a documented source of income and creditworthiness, and it is not limited to people employed under an employment contract: the bank states explicitly that an employment contract is not required and that documented income, e.g. from business activity, a disability pension or a retirement pension, is enough.

Interest rate and APRC

The bank lets you choose a variable or a periodically fixed interest rate. The variable rate is the sum of the POLSTR 1M Stopa Składana (compounded rate) reference index and the bank's margin, so the instalment changes with the index throughout the agreement: if interest rates rise the instalment may increase, if they fall it may decrease. The periodically fixed rate applies for the first 5 years (60 instalments), with the option of extending it for further 5-year periods under the bank's current offer; after that the loan switches to the variable rate. A variable-rate loan can also be switched to a fixed rate for 5 years during repayment.

It's also worth distinguishing between two concepts that are easy to confuse: the nominal interest rate is simply the "price" of money (reference index + margin), while the APRC (Annual Percentage Rate of Charge) is a much broader measure, which by law must include all the costs of the loan - interest, commissions, insurance, card fees or property inspection fees. That's why the APRC is usually higher than the nominal interest rate alone, and it is this figure that should be the main point of reference when comparing offers from different banks.

In the representative example calculated by the bank (calculation as of 1 October 2026), the variable interest rate is 5.55078% per annum (POLSTR 1M Stopa Składana at 3.56078% as of 30 September 2026 + a bank margin of 1.99%), and the resulting APRC is 5.99%. For the periodically fixed variant the bank gives a separate example: 6.68% for the first 5 years and an APRC of 7.19%. The actual margin and APRC a given client receives depend on the individual creditworthiness assessment, the LTV ratio and which additional bank products they use (see the section below), so before signing the agreement it is always worth asking for a current, individual simulation.

The bank allows a choice between an equal and a decreasing instalment. An equal instalment means that, with an unchanged interest rate, the size of the instalment remains constant throughout the repayment period - making it easier to plan a household budget. A decreasing instalment starts higher, but gradually decreases over time, because with each subsequent instalment the same portion of capital is repaid while only the interest portion decreases - at the same interest rate this results in a lower total interest cost of the loan, at the cost of a higher budget burden in the first years.

Total cost - representative example

According to the legally required representative example provided by the bank for the variable rate (calculation as of 1 October 2026):

• Total loan amount: PLN 393,729.37 (excluding financed costs)
• Loan term in the example: 22 years and 11 months (275 instalments)
• Own contribution made by the client: 34.86% of the total cost of the financed investment
• Principal and interest instalment (equal): PLN 2,533.14
• Total amount payable by the consumer: PLN 709,934.96
• Total cost of the loan: PLN 316,205.59, including: interest PLN 302,849.04, borrower life insurance (for the first 4 years) PLN 6,803.52, property insurance against fire and other random events (for 12 months) PLN 275.61, monthly debit card fee PLN 5, property inspection PLN 190, civil-law transactions tax on establishing the mortgage PLN 19

It's clear that additional costs - insurance, the card fee, the property inspection, the tax - while individually small, add up to a sum exceeding thirteen thousand zlotys in this specific example, and it is these, alongside the interest itself, that account for the difference between the nominal interest rate and the higher APRC.

The representative example includes no loan origination commission, but it should be read together with the rate table valid from 1 to 31 October 2026: the fee for preparing and concluding the agreement is 0% in the special offer with life insurance from the bank's offer, 1.99% in the special offer without that insurance and 2.99% in the standard offer.

Note: the figures above are a representative example calculated under specific assumptions (a given loan amount, repayment period and own contribution) - they are not a guarantee of identical terms for every client. The actual instalment, APRC and total cost depend on the individual loan amount, repayment period, own contribution and the creditworthiness assessment of the specific applicant - the bank itself makes this reservation in its calculation.

Requirements

The loan term is up to 30 years; with the periodically fixed rate it must be longer than 5 years. A longer term means a lower monthly instalment at the cost of a higher total interest cost compared to a shorter repayment period.

The bank requires an own contribution of at least 10% of the purchase price of the property, and the LTV ratio may not exceed 90%; above 80% LTV additional security is required and the margin is higher. Mandatory security is the mortgage and the assignment of rights under the property's fire and other random events insurance; life insurance is mandatory only in specific situations (e.g. when the sum of your age and the loan term exceeds 67 years, or when you apply as the sole borrower).

Additional products affecting the instalment amount

A lower margin here is tied to using the bank's additional products. According to the "General information" document and the rate table, the following lower the margin:

• a current account at Bank Pekao with regular monthly inflows (at least PLN 3,000 in the special offer) and a debit card for the account (the representative example lists a MasterCard Debit FX card with a fee of PLN 5 per month),
• a Karta Kredytowa z Żubrem credit card held for 5 years, with transactions of at least PLN 1,000 per month (margin reduced by 0.1 percentage points),
• property insurance against fire and other random events taken out through the bank (in the example: a PZU offer),
• life insurance taken out through the bank for the first 5 years of the loan.

Giving up any of these products usually results in a higher margin, and therefore a higher interest rate and instalment, than in the representative example above. This is worth taking into account when comparing the real cost of this offer with the competition - a bank with an apparently higher "base" margin, but without additional conditions, may in practice turn out cheaper for a client who doesn't want or can't maintain several products at one bank. On the other hand, people who were already planning to have a personal account with a salary inflow and a card at the bank granting the loan won't incur any additional real cost from this beyond the card fee itself.

Pros and cons

Below is a summary of the most important pros and cons of this offer.

Summary

The Bank Pekao mortgage loan is an offer for buying a property or transferring a loan from another bank, with a maximum repayment period of up to 30 years and a choice between a variable rate (POLSTR 1M Stopa Składana + margin) and a rate fixed for 5 years. In the representative examples dated 1 October 2026 the APRC is 5.99% for the variable rate and 7.19% for the periodically fixed rate. The final cost of the loan depends largely on which additional bank products the client uses (an account with inflows and a debit card, a credit card, insurance from the bank's offer) - without them the real margin and instalment may be higher, and without life insurance from the bank's offer a fee for concluding the agreement applies. Before signing the agreement, however, it is always worth asking the bank for an individual simulation based on your own loan amount, repayment period and own contribution - the representative example shows how the costs work, but it is not a guarantee of identical terms for every applicant.