Who may offer a non-bank mortgage, and what it costs compared with a bank

A non-bank mortgage is a loan secured on property from a lender other than a bank. Only a non-bank provider authorised by the ČNB and entered in its register may grant one to a consumer (§ 7 and 9 of Act No. 257/2016 Coll.). Bank rules apply to it too, including the 80 % LTV limit, or 90 % under 36. The price differs: compare it with the average rate on new bank mortgages, 5.00 % in August 2026 (ČBA).

If you are looking at a non-bank loan because a bank turned you down over a credit register record, first read when a mortgage goes through despite a register record. If the problem is income you cannot document, the options are in mortgage without proof of income. This article deals with the lender itself: who may lend, how to check them, what it costs and when to walk away before signing.

Who is allowed to offer a non-bank mortgage?

Consumer credit may be provided as a business only by a bank, a credit union, a payment institution, an electronic money institution or a non-bank consumer credit provider (§ 7 of the Consumer Credit Act). A non-bank provider must be a joint-stock company, a European company or a limited company (s.r.o.) based in Czechia, with initial capital of at least CZK 20,000,000 and authorisation from the ČNB (§ 9, 10 and 14). The authorisation arises on entry in the ČNB register and must be renewed after five years.

You are protected by the act only when you borrow as a consumer from someone authorised to lend. People most often lose that protection by taking a loan on their business ID for private purposes: the ČNB warns that such a loan has no statutory cap on early repayment costs or penalties, and the collateral may be out of all proportion to the debt.

Does the LTV limit apply to non-bank mortgages?

It does. The Czech National Bank Act imposes the limit on everyone authorised to provide consumer credit, not only on banks (§ 45a(1)). Even with a non-bank lender, a loan secured on residential property therefore may not exceed 80 % of the collateral value, or 90 % if at least one applicant is under 36 and the loan buys their own home. A provider may exceed the limit for only 5 % of its lending volume per quarter.

LTV is calculated from all consumer loans secured on the same property (§ 45a(5)). A second charge behind a bank mortgage does not get round the limit: on a flat worth CZK 4,000,000 with a CZK 3,000,000 mortgage, another secured loan can reach at most CZK 200,000, unless the provider uses the exemption.

The rest of the Consumer Credit Act applies as well. The provider must:

• Assess your creditworthiness. If it fails to, the contract is void and you repay only the principal, over a period that reflects your means (§ 86 and 87).
• Give you 14 days to consider the offer, during which it may not change or withdraw the draft contract (§ 111).
• Keep to the statutory cap on the early repayment fee (§ 117); the figures are in the refinancing section below.
• Limit penalties: a contractual penalty of at most 0.1 % a day, all penalties together at most half the loan and CZK 200,000; after 90 days in arrears, interest of at most the ČNB repo rate plus 8 pp, which is 11.75 % in the second half of 2026 (§ 122).
• Send you a demand and give you at least 30 days before accelerating the loan. It may then sell the collateral no sooner than 6 months after notifying you that enforcement of the lien has begun (§ 123 and 124).

How much does a non-bank mortgage cost compared with a bank?

The price is made up of the interest rate, the arrangement fee, the property valuation and possibly a broker's commission. We have not found any aggregate statistics on non-bank mortgage rates, so compare the APRC (RPSN) and the total amount payable in the pre-contract information that every provider must give you.

If a bank turned you down over your income, a higher payment will be even harder to carry. A secured non-bank loan therefore makes sense mainly as a short-term bridge, with a plan to repay it from a sale or move it to a bank. Compare offers in the Compare two mortgages calculator; the difference between the rate and the APRC is explained in APRC vs interest rate.

How to check a lender in the ČNB register

1. Open the ČNB lists of regulated and registered financial market entities (the JERRS application at jerrs.cnb.cz). Before you can search, the application asks you to type in a verification code.
2. Choose direct search and enter the company name or company ID (IČO) from the contract or website.
3. In the entity's profile, check the entity type (bank or non-bank consumer credit provider) and, among the permitted activities, the provision of consumer credit for housing (poskytování spotřebitelského úvěru na bydlení).
4. Compare the company ID and registered office with the details in the contract. A similar name is not enough; the company ID decides.
5. If a broker acts for the lender, check their registration too. Before arranging anything, they must tell you whether they are an independent or a tied intermediary, and in which register you can verify it (§ 93).

If you cannot find a firm in the register, walk away. It is not allowed to provide consumer credit.

Warning signs before you sign

• It wants money up front. Before the contract is signed, neither the lender nor the broker is entitled to any payment other than taxes, administrative fees and the cost of valuing the collateral (§ 83).
• It offers a loan to your business ID, although you want the money for private purposes.
• It wants you to sign a promissory note (směnka). These are banned in consumer credit (§ 112).
• Instead of a lien, it wants the flat transferred to it, for example by a purchase agreement with a buy-back. In consumer credit, property may secure a debt only by a lien, and any other security arrangement is disregarded (§ 113(2)). An agreement that the creditor keeps the collateral if you default is also banned by the Civil Code (§ 1315).
• The contract contains an arbitration clause. Since 1 December 2016, disputes from contracts that a business concludes with a consumer may not be decided by an arbitrator (§ 2 of Act No. 216/1994 Coll.). Disputes go to a court or, free of charge, to the Financial Arbitrator.
• It promises a loan “with no credit check and no proof of income”. A licensed provider has to assess creditworthiness, and a lender that skips this is relying on selling the collateral.
• It asks for something grossly out of proportion to what you receive and exploits your hardship. Such a contract is void as usury (§ 1796 of the Civil Code), and usury is also a criminal offence (§ 218 of the Criminal Code).
• Your only home is to be pledged for a small loan. For a non-purpose loan the security must not be manifestly out of proportion to the debt (§ 113(1)). Even when the contract meets that test, a drop in income puts your home at risk.

The ČNB advises asking for every offer in writing and treating a refusal to hand over documents as a warning.

How do you refinance a non-bank mortgage with a bank?

The best way out of a non-bank mortgage is to repay it with a bank mortgage. A bank will do that once the reason it turned you down has gone: the register record has aged, you can document a full year of self-employment, or a co-applicant with income has joined. Refinancing without increasing the principal, secured on the same property, is exempt from the LTV limit (§ 45a(3) of the Czech National Bank Act), although the bank will still check the value with its own valuation.

The exit fee has a statutory cap. For a non-purpose loan secured on property it is at most 1 % of the amount repaid early (0.5 % if no more than a year of the loan remains); for a purpose-bound mortgage it is 0.25 % for each started year until the end of the fixed-rate period, at most 1 % in total. Repaying CZK 1,500,000 early therefore costs no more than CZK 15,000, a fraction of what you save in interest. If you have other expensive loans alongside the secured one, merging them is covered in consolidating loans into a mortgage.