The mortgage firm grew 9.2% in January due to the reduction in the price of financing

The renewed interest in the purchase of housing, together with a new reduction in financing and the battle of the entities to attract customers, are behind the increase in the mortgages registered last January. The number of mortgages on houses registered in the registries of the property was of 29,778, a 9.2% more with respect to the same month of the previous year, according to the data published Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). The figure is 44% higher when compared to the previous month, with December 2017, and is the highest since 2014, the period analyzed by the Institute.

The constant cheapening of mortgages and the rise in the price of housing explain that mortgaged people have to ask for more and more capital. Thus, the average amount of said mortgages increased by 7.9% and stood at 121,954 euros. A rise that was transferred to the total borrowed capital, which rose by 17.8% per year to stand at 3,631.5 million euros.

The average interest rate for that mortgage type contracted was 2.68%, 14% lower than January 2017, and the average term of 24 years. Although it is the variable rate mortgages that experienced the highest reduction: the average interest rate at the beginning was 2.52%, with a decrease of 18%. And it was 3.03% for fixed rate, 5.5% lower. "The types to which these loans are granted continue to fall, as a result of competition between banks, but it is foreseeable that in the medium term we will see how fixed rates become more expensive because of the announced end of the purchase of debt by the banks. of the ECB, "says Fernando Encinar, Head of Studies at Idealista.

Source: El Pais