Kredyt hipoteczny

Bank Pekao mortgage loan – review

The Bank Pekao mortgage loan is a long-term loan secured by a mortgage on a property, intended for three specific purposes: building a house, buying a building plot, and buying a flat or house. This is an offer aimed at people planning to finance their own property over many years — the maximum loan term reaches as much as 30 years (360 months) — and who are willing to consider using several of the bank's additional products in exchange for a lower margin, which is now standard in mortgage offers from most large banks in Poland.

The loan is available from age 18 and is not limited solely to people employed under an employment contract — the bank accepts many different sources of income, more on which in the "Requirements" section below. This means the offer can be a real option also for people running a business, working on contracts, renting out property, or living off a farming operation.

Interest rate and APRC

The loan has a variable interest rate, based on the WIBOR 1M reference index plus the bank's margin. This means the size of the instalment is not fixed for the entire repayment period (unlike offers with a periodically fixed interest rate) — it will change along with monthly changes in WIBOR throughout the term of the contract. This is an important difference compared to products with a periodically fixed interest rate: when interest rates rise, the instalment can increase; when they fall, it can decrease — and the client bears this risk for the entire loan term.

It's also worth distinguishing between two concepts that are easy to confuse: the nominal interest rate is simply the "price" of money (WIBOR + 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 always 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, the variable interest rate is 5.99% per annum (WIBOR 1M + a bank margin of 1.95%), and the resulting APRC is 6.53% — this is the highest (and therefore most conservative) of the values that could be established for this offer from the available sources, which is why we treat it as the binding reference point in this review. It's worth knowing, however, that the bank's current promotional page is at this moment advertising a somewhat lower entry rate: a variable interest rate of 5.59% and an APRC of 6.03% (margin 1.79%), as part of a time-limited offer — valid until 31 August 2026. The actual margin and APRC a specific client will receive depend on their individual creditworthiness assessment and on how many of the bank's additional products they use (see the section below), so it is always worth asking for a current, individual simulation before signing the contract.

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 (calculation as of 2 January 2026):

• Total loan amount: PLN 393,729.37 (excluding financed costs)
• Loan term in the example: 22 years and 11 months (275 instalments)
• Client's own contribution: 34.86% of the total cost of the financed investment
• Capital-and-interest instalment (equal): PLN 2,687.36
• Total amount payable by the consumer: PLN 746,871.10
• Total cost of the loan: PLN 353,141.73, including: interest PLN 337,552.68, borrower insurance (for the first 4 years) PLN 7,739.14, property insurance against fire and other random events (for 12 months) PLN 321.17, monthly debit card fee PLN 5, property inspection PLN 440, tax on civil law transactions for the mortgage entry 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 fifteen 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 bank also states that the offer does not involve a loan origination commission. This is important additional information — the product database itself does not specify the amount of the commission, and confirmation of "no commission" comes from the bank's official website.

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 can only be used for one of three purposes: building a house, buying a building plot, and buying a flat or house. The minimum age of the borrower is 18, and the maximum loan term is 30 years — one of the longer terms available on the market, which translates into a lower monthly instalment at the cost of a higher total interest cost compared to a shorter repayment period.

On the plus side, there is a wide range of accepted income sources, which makes the offer accessible not only to people employed under an employment contract. The bank takes into account: an employment contract for an indefinite period, an employment contract for a fixed period, business activity, a contract of mandate, a specific-task contract, property rental, agricultural activity, a pension, a permanent disability pension, and a contract. Such flexibility is especially useful for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and people combining several sources of income — at many banks the list of accepted sources tends to be shorter.

Additional products affecting the instalment amount

As with most mortgage offers on the market, a lower margin here is tied to using the bank's additional products. According to the offer data and the representative example, the margin and instalment amount are affected by:

• holding a Bank Pekao credit card,
• holding a payment card (the representative example lists a MasterCard Debit FX debit card, for which a fee of PLN 5 per month is charged),
• maintaining a current account (ROR) at Bank Pekao, into which at least PLN 3,000 per month flows in from salary under an employment contract, a pension, a disability pension or other income,
• taking out property insurance (in the example: insurance against fire and other random events, offered by Bank Pekao on behalf of PZU).

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 a widely accessible offer for buying or building a property, with a long maximum repayment period (up to 30 years) and an exceptionally wide range of accepted income sources, including business activity, civil-law contracts, rental income or farming activity. The interest rate is variable, and the APRC — depending on the source — ranges between 6.03% and 6.53%, and when planning a household budget it is worth adopting the higher value as a safer point of reference. The final cost of the loan largely depends on how many of the bank's additional products (credit card, payment card, ROR with a salary inflow, property insurance) the client uses — without them, the real margin and instalment may be higher than in the representative example presented. The bank declares no loan origination commission, which is an additional plus of this offer. Before signing the contract, however, it is always worth asking the bank for an individual simulation taking into account your own loan amount, repayment period and own contribution — the representative example shows the cost mechanics, but is not a guarantee of identical terms for every applicant.