The work-from-home phenomenon during the pandemic is providing an unexpected boon for one of Japan’s biggest mortgage lenders.
Resona Holdings Inc. is enjoying a surge in demand for credit from homebuyers seeking larger properties in the suburbs, where the bank has a strong presence, President Masahiro Minami said. Its mortgage loans climbed 6.5% to ¥1.3 trillion ($12 billion) in the year ended March, the highest in at least three years.
"I didn’t expect the housing loan business to perform this solidly when the first state of emergency was declared in April last year,” Minami said in an interview, referring to Japan’s COVID-19 measures.