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More mortgages are being taken out in Spain than at any time in the last seven years

By Mas Property

on Thu Jan 04 2018

Statistics which were published a couple of weeks ago showed that the number of residential properties bought and sold in Spain during October was as much as 25 per cent higher than in the same month last year, but more figures which were made public on Thursday morning reveal that the number of purchases financed by mortgage loans rose rather less significantly.

The number of new mortgages registered during the month was 8.2 per cent higher than in October 2016, reaching 24,706, according to the data published by the government’s central statistics unit. Most of the 17 regions of Spain showed year-on-year increases in mortgage activity, the sharpest rises being those in La Rioja (87 per cent), Madrid (31 per cent), Galicia (22.1 per cent) and Navarra (21.1 per cent), but on the other hand the most significant decrease was that of the northern region of Aragon (31.7 per cent).

Interestingly, there was no significant slowdown in mortgage activity in Catalunya, despite fears that the political uncertainty following the partial holding of the outlawed independence referendum might have a negative effect: the number of mortgages registered in the region was 12.8 per cent higher than in October 2016.

The data published this week also show that the average loan capital involved in new mortgages during September was 9.2 per cent higher than in 2016 at 120,628 euros, and that while the average repayment interest rate stood at 2.67 per cent as many as 37 per cent of all new loans were on fixed rate repayment terms.

Once again, though, the most important aspect of these statistics for September is that they represent the continuation of the longer-term trend which reflects greater activity in the Spanish property market and its on-going recovery. The year-to-date total of mortgages registered after 10 months of 2017 is almost 265,000, an increase of 12 per cent in comparison to last year, while the running 12-monthly total now stands 13 per cent higher than a year ago at 310,693, its highest level since July 2012.

Source: Spain News Today, December 2017

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