INE: Mortgage Lending Rose by 9.7% in 2017

28 February 2018 – RTVE

The signing of new mortgages for the purchase of homes grew by 9.7% in 2017 with respect to the previous year and reached 310,096 contracts, whereby closing its fourth consecutive year on the rise, after falling non-stop over the previous seven years, since the start of the crisis.

According to provisional data published on Wednesday by Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE), the value of all of the new mortgages constituted in 2017 amounted to €36.2 billion, up by 16.6% compared to the previous year, whilst the average amount loaned grew by 6.3% to reach €116,709.

In December alone, 20,681 new mortgage contracts were constituted to buy homes in Spain, a similar figure to the one recorded in the same month in 2016 but almost 17% lower than the figure recorded in November 2017, according to INE.

The average interest rate decreased by 13.5%

At the end of 2017, the average interest rate of mortgages constituted to purchase homes was 2.73%, down by 13.5% compared to December 2016, with an average term of 23 years.

62.5% of the residential mortgages constituted were variable rate products and 37.5% were fixed rate deals. The number of fixed-rate mortgages increased by 4.9% compared to the end of 2016.

The average interest rate at the beginning of a mortgage term is 2.54% for variable rate residential mortgages, down by 18.6% compared to a year earlier. Meanwhile, fixed-rate mortgages have an average rate of 3.13%, down by 3.5% compared to those signed a year earlier.

Greatest increases in Andalucía, Madrid and Cataluña

In terms of the distribution by autonomous region, the areas that recorded the highest number of residential mortgages constituted during 2017 were Andalucía (60,240), the Community of Madrid (56,644) and Cataluña (49.918). The regions where the most capital was lent for the constitution of mortgages were the Community of Madrid (€9.287 billion), Cataluña (€6.894 billion) and Andalucía (€5.898 billion).

The signing of mortgages to purchase homes increased in all autonomous regions last year. The greatest increases were recorded in La Rioja (up by 18.4%), the Community of Madrid (+16.6%) and Asturias (+12.4%). Meanwhile, Aragón (+0.5%), Navarra (+0.7%) and Extremadura (+2.0%) saw the lowest increases.

In addition to mortgages for buying homes, the number of mortgage loans constituted for buying estates in general also rose. In total, during the whole of last year, 429,082 mortgages were signed, up by 7% compared to 2016. The number of mortgages constituted to buy rural estates decreased by 1.6% to reach 16,485 contracts.

The total capital lent for those loans amounted to €60.7 billion, with an average mortgage ticket of €141,445 (up by 5.8%).

Original story: RTVE

Translation: Carmel Drake