2022 closes with almost half a million operations, the highest number in twelve years, although the market shows signs of slowdown in December
The historic rise in interest rates has not prevented 2022 from closing with a record number of mortgages of almost half a million that has not been seen for more than a decade, but it has influenced the conditions that are signed, which have radically changed in this last year. Thus, at a time of economic uncertainty and in view of the fact that the Euribor will continue to grow, buyers have opted for the security of having a fixed interest rate, to the point that seven out of ten mortgages that were signed in 2022 were established at a fixed rate, the highest percentage since the National Institute of Statistics (INE) began to publish this data, in 2003, according to the statistics published this Thursday by the public body.
This is a total change in trend, since until 2021 variable-rate mortgages had always been the most chosen among home buyers. What’s more, just twelve years ago, fixed-rate operations were residual, barely 2.7% in 2010, a percentage that increased slightly over the years: 7.4% in 2015, 23, 7% in 2016, 42.1% in 2019… and, for the first time, in 2021 the fixed rate exceeded the variable rate.
Specifically, in 2022 more than 328,000 fixed-rate mortgages were registered in Spain, some 80,000 more than in 2021, despite the fact that the average interest rate was higher than that of the variable: 2.71% compared to 2.09%. It should be noted, however, that throughout the year the fixed rate has been losing weight and even experts predict that it will continue to fall, since now mixed mortgages are being the most in demand; in fact, they have gone from representing 6% of total operations in December 2021 to representing 31% in December 2022.
In general, the mortgage firm has also gone from more to less throughout the year. 463,614 operations were formalized, 10.9% more than a year ago and the highest figure since 2010. However, after 21 months of growth, the number of mortgages to buy a home fell by 8.8% year-on-year, which which already reflects a clear symptom of a slowdown in the real estate market due to the increase in the cost of loans as a result of the rate hike decreed from the summer by the ECB.
And it is that the interest rate climbed in December to an average of 2.67%, the highest since April 2018, and even the fixed rate was close to 3% (2.93%), practically equating itself with the Euribor of that month , which rose to up to 3%. Currently it is close to 3.5%.
In this way, the average amount of mortgages constituted on homes increased by 5.8% in 2022, reaching 145,510 euros, its highest value since 2007, while the capital lent increased by 17.3% in the last year as a whole, to exceed 67,460 million euros.
Moderation in 2023
The real estate portals described 2022 as a “record year”, a year in which there was an appetite thanks to the embalmed demand of the covid-19, but which has gone from more to less, also conditioned by the regulatory change motivated by the increase in the cost of the guys.
However, experts predict a much more moderate scenario in 2023, as anticipated by the drop of close to 9% registered last December. The new year will be a year marked by new rises in the Euribor and, therefore, more expensive loans, as well as the economic uncertainty generated by the war in Ukraine and the upward spiral in prices.
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