The interest rate decided by the Board of the Housing Financing Fund is now based firstly on the weighted average from an auction of HFF bonds and secondly on the financing cost of settled HFF mortgage bonds. This conforms to Article 21, par. 3 of the Housing Law no. 44/1998, including later revisions. The basis of the interest rate decision are the paybacks of HFF mortgage and the bids for HFF bonds in the auction held on Desember 13th. The weighted interest average is 5.05%. When added to the interest rate premium of 0.70% on regular housing loans the interest rate of new loans will be 5.75%. The interest rate premium on loans with a special prepayment fee is 0.45%, so the interest rate of such loans will be 5.5%.