Sharp rise in mortgages with a 32 per cent increase in the first six months of 2015
By Mas Property
on Wed Nov 18 2015
Almost 50 per cent of the sales of property in the province of Malaga are currently made using bank loans in the form of mortgages.
The banks are returning to the mortgage market at last. Statistics for this year point to a sharp rise in the number of mortgages agreed to – in the first half of 2015 5,910 such loans were given in Malaga province which represents a growth of 32 per cent over the number of mortgages at the same time last year.
Malaga is one of the Spanish provinces which has returned most forcefully to this market. Between January and June it was the fourth province in terms of the number of mortgage loans signed, behind Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.
The month of June was especially active when it comes to the mortgage market, exceeding the figure of 1,000 mortgages agreed to (the actual number was 1,082 or 30 per cent more than in the same period in 2014).
The average cost of mortgages rose to 104,779 euros, a figure which is 400 euros less than a year ago.
Banks and mortgages are taking a prominent position in the recovery of the housing market. This is a prominence that they did not have until now, given that the majority of property transactions were being made in cash.
There are two significant facts which reveal the changes in the housing market during the crisis. In June 2007, 3,413 property sales were recorded. In the same period 4,585 mortgages were agreed to. That is, more mortgages than sales.
Eight years later, in June 2015 2,208 properties were sold in Malaga province of which 1,082 were made possible with mortgage loans. This reveals that the property market on the Costa del Sol has been largely revitalised by sales in cash or without bank loans, made either by savers or by investment funds.
However it is worth stressing that mortgages are gaining ground. A year ago the percentage of homes bought with the aid of banks was 10 points lower, at only 40 per cent.
The multitude of offers on display in branch windows reveals the decision by banks to return to the mortgage market, albeit with much more rigorous conditions.
Source: Sur in English, September 2015