HIGH interest rates continue to affect the number of new home loans, down 29. 6% year-on-year in September.
According to figures released Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics, 31,054 loans were granted two months ago, when interest rates averaged 3. 26%.
The figures compare to 2022, which was a smart year, and mortgages are back to where they were before the Covid pandemic.
Last year, 463,614 mortgages were issued, the total since 2010.
Juan Villen, of Idealista Hipotecas, said: “This trend will continue for the rest of the year, it is foreseeable that the drop in transactions compared to last year will ease in the last component of 2023. “
Credit to buy space is expensive and difficult to unload due to interest rate hikes made through the European Central Bank since July last year and a Euribor rate above 4%.
The growing burden of new mortgages makes financing prohibitive for a large number of people.
The average interest rate on loans contracted in September – with an average duration of 24 years – continued to grow, increasing by more than one point compared to the previous year, reaching 3. 26%, the figure since February 2016.
This is the sixth consecutive month in which the interest rate has exceeded 3%.
The most immediate result is that sales and mortgages have decoupled since the beginning of the year and all buyers are signing a mortgage.
According to the Conseil des Notaires, almost a portion of sales are paid in cash.
Although fewer mortgages were taken out than a year earlier, the number of those loans remained stable.
The average amount decreased by 0. 1% year-on-year in the ninth month of the year, to 143,186 euros, while the capital lent decreased by 29. 7%, to 4. 4 million euros.
All the autonomous communities registered annual diversifications in the number of loans signed in September, with the largest decrease in Murcia, where loans granted fell by 44. 8%, followed by Aragon (-39. 0%) and Galicia (-38. 2%).
The number of mortgages granted was granted in Andalusia (5,900), the Community of Madrid (5,854) and Catalonia (5,291).