The mortgage firm falls another 29.6% with the average interest at seven-year highs

In September, the mortgage firm had eight consecutive months of declines amid the sharp rise in financing costs. The granting of loans to purchase housing plummeted another 29.6% compared to the previous year to 31,054 loans with the average interest at a seven-year high, at 3.26%. The aggressive policy that the European Central Bank (ECB) has been applying to control inflation has not only triggered the Euribor, the main indicator for variable rate loans, but has also made the supply of fixed rate mortgages sold by banks more expensive. . .

The fall in mortgages in September accelerated compared to August, when they fell 22.7%. The average amount of mortgages constituted on homes hardly changed in relation to the same month a year ago, since it decreased by 0.1% to 143,186 euros. However, entities have seen a sharp reduction in the total volume of credits they have granted for this purpose. The borrowed capital sinks 29.7% overall to 4,446.5 million.

Although the ECB took a break this month and decided to keep interest rates at 4.5% after ten consecutive increases, they remain at their highest level since 2001, pushing up the interest rate on mortgage loans, which exceeds 3% for the sixth consecutive month and that between September of last year and the same month of this year it has increased by 1.26 points.

The slowdown in the real estate market is not only seen when compared with the data from the previous year, but also when compared to the previous month. Although the granting of loans to purchase housing has been increasing in every September of the last four years in relation to August, the increase registered this year is the lowest since 2012. So, in the midst of the debt crisis, the granting Mortgages barely increased by 3.1% in September compared to August, while this year it has increased by 9.6%.