October mortgage in Spain data
October, as is the normally the case, was a quieter month for new loan completions in Spain.
Against Septembers registrations the number of new loans was down 15.9%, the capital lent down 18% and the average loan amount dropping by 2.4%.
The amount of new loans constituted was 24,706 and the average loan size was 120,628.
In 2016 the number of new Spanish mortgages in comparison to September was minus 15.2% and the level of capital lent was minus 16.9% so this years figures are in line with normal trends.
Annually, so October 2017 to October 2016, the picture was more rosy with the numbers of Mortgage loans increasing by 8.2% and the average loan size increasing by 9.2%.
The interannual figures remain well above last years figures with an increase of 12% on numbers of new home credits and 19% up on capital lent due to the average loan size increasing by 6.2% for the first 10 months of 2017.
Home loans
In October the amount of new credit coming into the market for home loans dropped below 60% of the total credit granted this is unusual but not unheard of and may reflect the fact that due to improvements on the economy more lenders are opening up for commercial loans or loans connected to commercial activity.
Fixed rates increase
Interest rates showed a drop on October 2016 for variable rate products and was an average of 2.67% down by 15.6% on the same time last year. Fixed rates however were up on last year by 17.6%.
Fixed rates made up 37% of all completions and overall average in interest rates were well below last year and down on last month.
It is still possible even in the non resident market to gain fixed rates for 20 years from 2.6% for the full term but it is also the case that for residents the very low fixed rates offered earlier in the year are now much closer to non resident fixed rates.
Valencia struggles
Regionally all areas followed the national trends for the month. Murcia, Cataluna, Valencia and the Canaries lagged well behind others Andalucia, Balearics and Madrid performed better than average.
Yearly of the regions that are of most appeal to foreign buyers only Valencia has lent both slightly less in terms of capital lent and is behind 2016 in terms of numbers of new Spanish loans.
After a couple of months of net loan inflows October had more redemptions and cancellations than loans being added to the book.