January 2018 starts the year well for Mortgages in Spain.
Home loan size averages rose back up from their low levels in December to € 122,000 after dipping down to € 115.6 the previous month.
The number of new Spanish mortgages contracted for the purchase of a residence were also well up in the month.
Whilst clearly this shows renewed confidence of Spanish Nationals the figures are also helped by lending for non residents.
In total 29.778 new loans were registered at land registry and a total of 3.631.543 of new capital came into the market.
On the preceding month the number of loans was up 44%, the capital lent was up 51.9% and the average loan size was up 5.5%.
Despite a very positive January for 2017 the year on year figures also made good reading.
The number of new loans was 9.2% above last year, the capital lent was up 17.8% and the average loan size rose by 7.9%.
High levels of increased activity in Spain
The increase in activity of January over December was the highest it has been for over 5 years. Whilst January is always up on December figures it has not been close to a rise of 44% since 2014. The same was true for the actual level of capital lent.
On another positive note the year started well for the Spanish Banks as the amount of mortgages in Spain being cancelled or redeemed reached 29,437 so with 29,778 new loans being registered the Banks in Spain saw a positive inflow of 341 contracts.
Total new credit increases
Total new lending covering commercial lending as well as residential likewise saw a very positive and strong start to the year.
Mortgages for the purchase of a Spanish home made up less than 60% of all new lending below the more standard of above 60% but this is good news for the economy as it suggest business is expanding.
Interest rates continue to fall
Interest rates fell for another month the average variable rate dropped 14% from January last year to 2.68%. Fixed rates stayed steady at 37.2% of all new loans contracted and the average fixed rate was 3.03% for the average 24 year term.
Costs of funds to the Spanish Banks have risen in the last few weeks putting some pressure on fixed rate best buys but the Euribor remained in negative territory and trackers are tracking the 12 month Euribor at 0% for the purpose of mortgage calculation.
Catalonia sees recovery for first month of year.
Regionally the coastal areas saw the best increases year on year. Catlonia after being in the doldrums for a couple of months post the separation crisis bounced back well in January.
Catalonia saw an increase of 63.4% in terms of numbers of loans above December and a 19% increase on January of 2017.
Other regions that outperformed the median figures were, Andalucia, Valencia and Murcia.
Murcia has suffered heavily since the crisis but January bodes well for new Spanish house sales and loans based on Januarys figures. Murcia saw a 61.9% increase month on month in terms of numbers of new loans and 59.3% increase in cap
The Canary Islands saw a sharp drop in numbers of new loans but a rise both month on month and year on year in terms of capital lent. This suggests again that higher priced houses are now selling in the Islands and the prices are rising.