Mortgage holidays-2026: who can take an 18-month delay

The State Duma adopted amendments to the Federal Law "On Consumer Credit (Loan)" in the second and third readings, which significantly expand the possibilities for borrowers with children to receive a deferral on mortgage payments. The document will enter into force on September 1, 2026. As Igor Igoshin, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee for the Protection of Competition, explained, from the specified date, families in which a second or subsequent child was born or adopted will have the right to demand a mortgage grace period from the bank. The main innovation is that you no longer need to prove a decrease in income for this - the very fact of having a child is a sufficient reason. The grace period can last up to one and a half years, but no longer than the child turns 18 months old. In this case, the deferral operates according to the following scheme: - for the first six months, the borrower is completely exempt from all payments - neither the loan body nor interest is paid; - from the seventh to the eighteenth month, the bank continues to charge interest, but their payment is postponed until after the end of the holidays. Important clarification: the law also applies to contracts concluded before September 1, 2026. If the mortgage has already been issued, and a second child is planned in the family, vacations are also available. Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin noted that previously families could only apply for a six-month deferral and subject to strict conditions, including a drop in income of more than 20% with a monthly payment of over 40% of the family budget. Now these barriers have been removed. At the same time, certain restrictions remain.: - the loan amount should not exceed 15 million rubles; - housing should be the only one owned by the borrower; - you can use the holidays only once for the entire term of the mortgage. It is allowed to apply for a postponement within 180 days from the date of birth or adoption of the child. During the entire vacation period, banks are prohibited from charging penalties and fines, demanding the sale of collateral or contacting guarantors. This law is of strategic importance for the segment of individual housing construction. Building your own house is a long and costly process. The family simultaneously bears the costs of renting a home, buying materials, and paying for a mortgage loan. As a result, the peak load on the budget falls just at the construction stage, when entry is still impossible. The new holidays allow you to redirect funds from mortgage payments to the completion of construction, decoration, purchase of furniture and landscaping. In practice, this means that a family can move into a ready-made, furnished house and only then begin to fully repay the mortgage. For the suburban real estate market, this reduces the buyer's main risk - the fear of not making payments during the construction period. The law turns the mortgage into a tool synchronized with the actual construction cycle, and not with the date of signing the loan agreement.