Mortgage Signings Slow Down in October but Still Increase 7%

According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), the rate at which mortgages are being signed in Spain is slowing down. However, the news is positive as there was still an annual increase in October of the number of mortgages granted for that month of 7%.

During the tenth month of this year, a total of 19,195 mortgages were awarded by Spanish banks and recorded with the property registry office, 7% more than 12 months before.

With figures from October, this means that there has now been a rise of mortgages being taken out for 17 consecutive months.

Nevertheless, the drop in the rate from the previous month, September, has been 13%. During that month, the number of mortgages granted by the banks went up 20.2% annually.

As a result, for the first time in almost 18 months, the rise in mortgages from year to year has not been by a two-digit figure.

The average amount of money taken out in each mortgage in October was 111,711 euro, which is 10.8% more than for the same month in 2014.

And, banks lent 18.7% more capital than the previous year, totalling 2.1 billion euro for the same month.

This year has been an extremely positive one for mortgages in Spain. Statistics show that between January this year and October, the total number of mortgages awarded in Spain went up by 20.1% from the same period in 2014, the total amount of capital lent increased by 25% and the average amount of money given in each loan was also 4% higher than last year.

With regards to Spain’s autonomous regions, the greatest number of mortgages for October were granted in Andalucía (3,551), followed by Cataluña (3,138) and Madrid (3,033).

The biggest annual differences were registered in the Balearic Islands (+61.8%), the Basque Country (+43.7%) and the Canary Islands (+32.8%).

On the other hand, there were fewer mortgages during the last 12 months in Navarra (-37.4%) and Asturias (-14.9%).

The most capital was lent out by the banks in Madrid (513 million euro), Cataluña (388 million euro) and Andalucía (335 million euro).

Source: www.20minutos.es