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INE: Mortgages Increased By 25.8% In August

28 October 2015 – Público

The number of new mortgages signed for house purchases increased by 25.8% in August, compared with the same period a year earlier, as 19,272 new loans were granted. Nevertheless, and according to the data published yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), if we compare the figures in August with those of July, then the number of new mortgage signings decreased by 11.9%.

The total volume of mortgages granted to purchase homes in August amounted to €2,010 million, an increase of 26.5% YoY, but a decrease of 11.9% compared with the previous month. Moreover, the average size of those mortgages increased by 0.6% YoY to amount to €104,318, although in comparison with July, this figure represented a decrease of 0.1%.

89.2% of the mortgages constituted in August had variable interest rates, compared with 10.8% that had fixed interest rates. Euribor was the reference rate used for the constitution of most new variable rate mortgages, specifically it was used in 91.8% of the new contracts of this type.

The average interest rate (at the beginning of the contract term) for mortgages granted to buy homes was 3.25%, i.e. 13.4% lower than the rate recorded in August 2014. The total number of mortgages registering changes to their conditions in the property records in August amounted to 13,205, i.e. 14% fewer than in August last year.

By autonomous region, the following CCAAs registered the highest number of new mortgages for homes in August: Andalucía (3,722), Madrid (3,450) and Cataluña (2,545). The autonomous regions that recorded the highest YoY increases were: La Rioja (up by 65.9%), Valencia (58.3%) and Navarra (36.5%). On a YoY basis, only two regions recorded decreases, namely Aragón (-5.2%) and the Balearic Islands (-2.1%). (…).

Meanwhile, the autonomous regions that loaned the most capital for the constitution of mortgages for homes were Madrid (€489.4 million), Andalucía (€331.4 million) and Cataluña (€304.5 million).

The experts expect the number of house purchases to keep increasing

The leading real estate websites in Spain expect house sales to continue to increase over the coming months, given the normalisation of the sector and the decrease in prices following the burst of the real estate bubble. (…).

The experts at fotocasa.es think that this positive trend will continue during 2015 and into 2016, but they add that we should be “cautiously optimistic” since the current figures are still a long way off of the levels recorded in 2005. “The mortgage statistics are very closely linked to the increase in credit from the banks and the significant decrease in house prices that we have seen in recent years”.

Original story: Público

Translation: Carmel Drake