The National Institute of Statistics (INE) have released data detailing new mortgage lending in March 2016 and it shows that there were 14.5% more mortgage approvals than in the same month in 2015.
When looking at the total of all mortgages approved, the average amount increased by 1.7% over the same month in 2015, to reach 129,202 euros.
When looking at only mortgages for home purchases, the average amount was 107,861 euros, an increase of 4.8%. There were 22,983 home mortgages written in the records of property during March.
The total value of all mortgages on urban properties amounted to 3,916.1 million euros, representing a 10.4% increase over the same period in 2015. On mortgages for homes, the total amount was 2,479 million euros, an increase of 20%.
Interest Rates
Of the total, 87.6% of mortgages were issued with a variable rate, compared to only 12.4% on a fixed rate. The Euribor is used as the base rate in constituting variable rate mortgages in 94.3% of new contracts.
The average interest rate on new mortgages in March was 3.23% while the average term was 22 years. For mortgages for residential property, the average interest rate was 3.25%, 3.2% lower than in March 2015.
Autonomous Communities
Andalusia was the community with the most new mortgage approvals in March with 4,712, followed by Madrid and Catalonia with 3,884 and 3,570, respectively.
When looking at the communities by annual growth rate, the Canary Islands came out on top with a 121.2% increase, a mile away from second place Extremadura which saw a 55.1% increase, and Andalusia where there were 37.4% more mortgage approvals than in March 2015.
By total amount mortgaged for residential property, the highest was seen in Madrid with 600 million euros, followed by Catalonia with 465 million and Andalusia with 426.6 million euros.
The Canary Islands also saw the largest monthly increase with 88.3% more mortgages approved in March, compared to the previous month, with Extremadura seeing a 3.1% increase, while Andalusia saw a slight rise of 0.8%.
The communities with the greatest monthly declines were Murcia, Asturias and Aragón, with falls of 29.2%, 24.6% and 20.4%, respectively.
These figures are slightly different to those reported last week by Cinco Dias, although both show an increase in mortgage approvals.
