Sharp rise in new mortgages hints at housing market recovery

The average mortgage taken out, according to January's figures – the latest on record as yet – was over a 23-year period, for a total loan of €112,844 and with an interest rate of 3.14%.

A growing number of mortgages are now becoming fixed-rate, despite the Euribor – Eurozone interest rate – showing no signs of rising in the foreseeable future, and 36.8% of new home loans were set up with a fixed level of interest rate in last year.

Over the 12-month period up to January 2017, a total of 27,240 mortgage contracts were signed, or an increase of 16.9% year-on-year.

And in that month alone, a total of €3.01 billion was borrowed to buy property across the country – a rise of 24.5% on January 2016.

The amounts borrowed in January were 6.4% higher than in the same month in 2016, although only 0.1% more than in the previous month, December 2016.

Mortgages taken out purely for residential homes made up 61% of the total, with the rest being for plots of land and commercial premises.

In January, nearly 9,000 mortgages on a variable-rate basis came up for renewal, or were amended by the original lender at the request of the customer, and the number of homeowners who switched mortgage providers in that month was down by nearly 43% year-on-year.

Andalucía and Madrid were the regions with the most mortgages taken out in January 2017 – a total of 5,018 contracts each – followed by Catalunya at 4,258.

La Rioja at 181 and Cantabria at 330 registered the fewest.

The greatest percentage increases were seen in Asturias (37.6% more than a year ago), the Balearic Islands (34.6%) and Cantabria (32%).

And the highest amounts of capital lent to buyers were seen in Madrid (€774 million), Catalunya (€571m) and Andalucía (€453.2m).