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Mortgage Borrowing Increased in March

Mortgage Borrowing Increased in March
Borrowing for mortgages Increased in March

Homebuyers borrowed 3,850m euros in March

The number of new mortgages approved in March reached 30,716, an annual increase of 15.8%, according to data from the INE. The average amount of those home loans was 125,341 euros, an annual increase of 3.9%.

The total capital loaned for the purchase of a home in March reached 3,850 million euros. This represents an increase of 20.3% when compared to March 2018.

Looking not only at home mortgages but all new mortgage loans, the average amount borrowed was 146,544 which represents a 6.9% increase over last year. The value of all mortgages reached a staggering 5,951.8 million euros, which is a massive 23.6% more than last March.

Interest Rates

Looking at all mortgages taken in March, the average interest rate at the beginning was 2.58% (2.3% lower than March 2018), and the average term was 23 years. 60.6% of mortgages were on a variable interest rate and 39.4% on a fixed rate.

The average interest rate at the beginning of the loan term was 2.27% for variable rate mortgages (7.1% lower than in March 2018) and 3.24% for fixed rate mortgages (4.1% higher).

For mortgages taken for a home purchase, the average interest rate was 2.62% (0.1% higher than in March 2018) and the average term was 24 years. 58.1% of mortgages on housing were on a variable rate and 41.9% on a fixed rate. The number of mortgages on a fixed rate experienced a 24.5% increase on the annual rate.

The average interest rate at the start of the loan term was 2.34% for variable rate mortgages (a decrease of 2.7%). For fixed rate loans the average was 3.11% (1.6% higher).

Autonomous Communities

Madrid, Andalucía and Cataluña were the communities with the largest number of new home loans taken in March, with 6,102, 6,069 and 5,135, respectively.

The same three communities saw the highest total capital loaned, but in a different order. In Madrid, the total reached 1,063.4 million euros, followed by Cataluña with 764,4 million. Andalucía came third with 654.1 million euros borrowed.

Extremadura saw the highest annual variation rate in the amount of borrowed capital with a 41.3% increase. Murcia and Madrid also saw large increases with the amount borrowed increasing 37.5% and 33.1%, respectively.

The Balearic Islands saw the highest annual variation in the number of new home mortgages with a 49% increase. In Extremadura the number of home loans increased by 35.6%, and by 31.1% in Murcia.

The only communities with a negative annual variation rate were Aragón (-18.3%), Valencia (-2.1%) and Asturias (-1.6%).