Mortgage comparison: how to pick a bank
Every bank counts income differently, values a property differently and charges its own fees. We have set out the terms of eleven of them. For each one you can see straight away whether we can arrange its mortgage for you, or only write about it.
Banks our adviser arranges
Our adviser will arrange a mortgage with these for you. The contract with the bank is theirs, not ours. They will compare the banks with each other and tell you which one suits your situation best. For you it costs nothing; the bank pays the fee.
How many banks you see depends on which network your adviser belongs to; each has its own contracted set. So ask them directly for the list. It is a question with a short answer, and the way you get it tells you a lot about them. Below are the banks that come up most often with our adviser.
- Raiffeisenbank mortgage Limits, fixed periods of up to 15 years and what the advertised 90% means
- Komerční banka mortgage Processing fee, early repayments and what 100% means
- Česká spořitelna mortgage A 35-year term with one product only, what is free and what isn’t
- Oberbank mortgage Loans in euros, property abroad as security and a variable rate
- ČSOB mortgage Rate discounts, a surcharge on loans under two million and why Hypoteční banka is the same thing
- UniCredit Bank mortgage Why it advertises 95% when the limit is 90, and what follows from that
Banks we only write about
Our advisers do not arrange these, and we do not act as an intermediary for them. We write about them because people ask about them and their terms are not gathered together anywhere else.
- Air Bank mortgage terms of a bank we don’t arrange; it handles applications through its own channels
- Moneta mortgage terms of a bank we don’t arrange: LTV, term, fees
- Equa bank mortgage the bank merged into Raiffeisenbank: what it means for existing contracts
- Fio banka mortgage a minimum of CZK 1.5 million, fixed periods of at most five years and what follows from that
- Modrá pyramida mortgage Hypoúvěr ended at the end of 2025: what it means for existing contracts
Pick by your situation
Often what decides is not the bank but what you are dealing with. A self-employed person, a foreigner or someone without savings runs into something different at every bank.
- Mortgage for the self-employedThe bank does not have to count from your tax base; it can count from turnover. The difference can run into millions.
- Mortgage without savingsFour routes to extra financing when you do not have 10 to 20% of your own money.
- Mortgage for foreignersResidence status, income in a foreign currency, and what changed in 2011.
- American mortgageA no-purpose loan secured by a property. More expensive, but with no need to prove the purpose.
- For building and renovationGradual drawdown: you pay interest only on what you have drawn down.
- For a flatThe valuation is often done from a desk, but the bank also cares about the building and its owners' association.
- For a houseThe land, access to it, and for new building every permit, including the well and septic system.
- For a cooperative flatA share in a cooperative cannot be pledged, so it is handled differently.
- RefinancingIs your fixed-rate period ending? Compare it against what you pay now.
- New fixed rate, or switch?Most people end up staying. When switching actually makes sense.
- Green mortgageThe discount for an energy rating is really a surcharge for not proving it.
- Pre-approved mortgageThe market means two different things by that term. What decides is whether the bank has seen your documents.
- Mortgage adviserThe bank pays them, but only out of the loan once it is drawn down. What that means for you.
- The mortgage adviser marketThe Czech National Bank's register has two tiers. We worked out both from open data.
- Adviser, or bank?Neither shows you the whole market. And Air Bank can only be arranged directly.
What to compare banks by
Not by the borrowing rate. An offer with a lower rate can end up more expensive, because fees and compulsory insurance are part of the price too.
- APRC, not the rate. The one figure that already includes fees. For two banks we have shown that the variant with insurance has a lower rate but a noticeably higher APRC.
- What the bank wants in exchange for a discount. Almost every rate comes with a condition: an account, income paid into it, insurance, or an energy label.
- Property valuation. From nothing up to CZK 5,000 depending on the bank. On a tight mortgage, that counts.
- How the bank counts your income. This is where the differences are biggest; see What income a bank recognises.