Back

Home mortgages fall by 18.3% in April according to the INE

For the month of April, home mortgages fell by 18.3%. The average amount had an annual decrease of 4.1% in the fourth month of this year, which means a drop to 136,945 euros, while the capital loaned fell by 21.6% to 3,704.7 million euros.

The number of loans to acquire housing was 27,053 in the month of April, this is due to the fall of 18.3% since in the same month last year the figure was 33,103. This makes it the lowest figure since December 2020, according to data released Thursday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The figures make the months of February, March and April negative figures, as these months also saw declines: February by 2% and March by 15.7%. 

Following the interest rate hike, the market has been affected in different ways. The 12-month daily rate exceeded 4% for the first time since November 2008 following the increase in the price of money approved by the European Central Bank (ECB). Home sales have declined and since last summer, fixed rate loans, which reached an all-time high, have fallen by more than ten points in terms of their share of the total. With this fall, variable-rate loans have gained ground.

If we analyze home mortgages we can find that the average interest rate is 3.09% (1.32 points more than the same month in the previous year) and the average term to pay them is 24 years. The average interest rate at the beginning is 2.78% for variable rate mortgages and 3.29% for fixed rate mortgages.

The communities with the most mortgages constituted on homes in April were: Andalusia (5,473), Catalonia (4,477) and the Community of Madrid (4,373). And the communities where more capital is lent are: Community of Madrid (882 million euros), Catalonia (697.8 million) and Andalusia (648.1 million). However, the capital loaned decreased in all communities.

In April, 38.7% of mortgages were at variable rates and 61.3% at fixed rates.