Minister of Economy’s Mortgage Aid Plan Falls Short of Expectations

The Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, has failed with her mortgage aid plan, agreed upon with the banks at the end of last year, so that those affected by the rise in interest rates and the Euribor could benefit from different relief measures. financial relief.

The figures handled by the entities show that the requests to reduce loan installments at variable rates They don’t even reach 25,000 today., according to financial sources consulted by THE OBJECTIVE. A demand figure that radically contrasts with the expectations set by the department led by Calviño, which amounted to one million beneficiaries.

In the first months of execution of the project framed in the new Code of Good Banking Practices, it was already clear that the requests of those affected by the increase in interest rates were going to remain well below the Economy forecasts. But, at that moment, There were estimates that as the months went by the aid plan was going to have a much more significant acceptance than it is having.

Demand has increased throughout the summer, but it is having limited reception. Even the entities themselves are carrying out many more improvements and refinancing outside of said program to facilitate the payment of loans so that clients do not go into default. A fact that has tripled the amounts in the changes in conditions at the sector level.

Only 6,000 new applications in summer to make mortgages cheaper

The latest official numbers offered indicated that at the end of July the number of mortgage holders who had requested some type of modification to the contract to lower the costs of home loans reached 19,000, so During the summer months there have not been even 6,000 new members of the project promoted by the Ministry of Economy.

The plan consisted of the bank approving payment moratoriums, freezing of installments, changes from variable to fixed rates and facilities to carry out early repayments for vulnerable families and middle incomes, since some of these measures were going to be available for households. with income of up to 29,400 euros per year.

Given the lack of demand, The Government even considered expanding the criteria before the holidays and in the middle of the electoral campaign with the intention that a broader group You could have some of these facilities at your disposal to meet your financial commitments. But the refusal of the Bank of Spain prevented the Executive from adopting said extension of the plan.

Caixabank is the entity with the largest volume of mortgages in our country, with nearly a quarter of housing loans. To date, the entity has received only 6,000 complaints within the framework of the Code of Good Practicesaccording to the data provided by its CEO, Gonzalo Gortázar, this week during a conference organized by KPMG and Expansion. Of the total, half are in processing and the other half have already been applied.

The bank, since the implementation of the aid plan, however has carried out more than 10,000 refinancings outside of this program on a voluntary basis to improve the conditions of its clients and another 9,000 changes from fixed to variable rates.

Other entities are also not seeing an influx of requests. Unicaja, for example, has received only 500 within the framework of the project promoted by the Ministry of Economy, according to the figures released by its new CEO, Isidro Rubiales.

The rise in the Euribor as a consequence of the escalation of the official interest rates of the BCE To control inflation, they have made variable mortgages considerably more expensive in the last year and a half, which are the ones Spaniards have the most in their portfolio. 70% of these credits depend on this indicator, which is above 4%.

The installments that holders of these mortgages have to pay have risen to 300 euros, although on average the increase is estimated at about 100 eurossince many of the affected loans are old and therefore have a lower amount of principal due to the amortizations carried out.

Furthermore, to avoid an increase in installments, early repayments have been skyrocketing for months. Amortizations have grown by around 25% in the last year thanks to the savings pocketed during the pandemic by families, which is causing a considerable decrease in the mortgage balance to levels not seen since 2006.