The granting of mortgages takes a big leap in March, shooting up 35% | Economy

A big leap for the mortgage market. March confirmed the incipient recovery to which the February figures pointed and resulted in a resounding rise: 36,886 home mortgages. This monthly data is the fourth best in the last ten years. Because that is the period to go back, until March 2011, to find a time when Spain, then in the doldrums but dragging the inertia of the bubble years, was used to a higher monthly volume of mortgages. Since then, only three months (May 2011, January 2019 and January 2020) had exceeded the figure of 37,000 loans, to which the data provided this Thursday by the INE is very close.

Mortgages on housing soar 35.1% compared to March last year. Although this rise is also explained because that month was already partially affected by the first state of alarm. If March 2020 is compared with that of 2019 – the last March that can be taken as a reference before the coronavirus crisis – growth is no less striking: 19.3% more. From the point of view of amounts, the average loan was 137,729 euros, 7.2% more than a year earlier. The total capital lent by financial institutions for the purchase of a home amounted to 5,080 million euros, an increase of 44.9%.

However, the party is not absolute. There is still a long way to go, after months in which the market has limped, and this is shown by the data of the annual accumulated. Throughout the first quarter of the year, 96,051 home mortgages have been constituted in Spanish property registries compared to more than 104,000 in the same period last year, 7.8% less. As for the average loan, the amount remained 4.1% below the average for the first quarter of 2020, with which the capital lent by banks was 11.8% lower.

For consumers, the bad news is that mortgages became more expensive. The average interest rate at the beginning of the loan was 2.49%, the highest since August of last year. Loans with fixed interest were signed, on average, with 2.75%, in line with the last few months, while in the variables the average interest rate was 2.22%, again the most expensive since last summer (in February they were at 2.15%). In this context, fixed loans consolidated their primacy in the market, accounting for 56.2% of all those signed. A decade ago, this type of mortgages in which the same amount is always paid (generally higher, but with the certainty that it will not rise) were practically marginal, but they have been gaining weight as they have become more competitive until they cover most of the market.

Galicia: an increase of 79%

By autonomous communities, March leaves a growth in the number of mortgages in all of them except in Aragón and La Rioja, with two declines in annual terms of 4.2% and 20.1%, respectively. In all the others they rose, although with very different percentages: the rise in Asturias of 13.1% (modest in the context of the month) contrasts with the striking 79.3% growth that was registered in Asturias. In the four largest regional markets (Andalusia, Madrid, Catalonia and the Valencian Community), the percentages ranged from 31.4% in the first to 44.9% in the second.

“The closing of operations for the month of March exceeds for the first time [en la actual crisis] the barrier of 35,000 closed mortgages, and is back at 2019 levels ″, has valued María Matos, director of studies at Fotocasa, in a note sent to the media. For the analyst, “these data show that the sector has recovered, that real estate has recovered and that it is presenting itself with strength and stability to lead the economic recovery of the country.”

Regarding the total number of mortgages, adding those for housing (which are the vast majority of the market) to others that are constituted on other types of urban and rustic properties, March ended with a total of 49,686 loans. This is 35.8% more than in March 2020. The capital loaned, 7,424 million euros, grew 25% in annual terms while the average amount, 149,428 euros, fell 7.7%. In the quarter as a whole, the mortgage market as a whole is still 11.3% behind last year’s figures.

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