Wednesday 19 April 2017

Spanish Mortgages Hits Five Year High for January

Spanish Mortgages Hits Five Year High for January



The mortgage market is back and more and more are being approved
Recent data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) revealed 27,240 new mortgages were issued in January in Spain – making it the most issued in a single month since January of 2012.

The figure was also an increase of 16.9% over January of last year, giving credence to the prediction that 2017 could be even stronger for the Spanish property market than 2016 was.

The data from the INE shows that the average mortgage in January was worth €112,844, an annual increase of 6.4%. This figure also shows the increasing confidence of Spanish banks in the economy and property markets, as more banks than ever are loosening their purse strings.

It also shows that the average home buyer is in a better financial position, whether they be native or foreign. 36.8% of the mortgages issued in January were fixed-rate mortgages offered at the Euribor rate – a great option for young buyers with smaller deposits.

16 of the autonomous regions of the country saw year-on-year increases in mortgage activity during January. The only region that didn’t follow the trend was Castilla y León. Galicia, the Balearics, and Asturias saw the largest increases, with over 30% more mortgages issued in January 2017 than in the previous year.

If the previous 12 months were taken as a running total, the Spanish mortgage data shows an increase on the prior 12 months of 14.6%; with 285,000 mortgages issued in the past 12 months.