Highest number of new January mortgages since 2011

January saw the number of new mortgages increase by nearly 18% compared to twelve months earlier, registering the highest figure for January since 2011. 

According to data released on Monday by the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE), 6,907 mortgages were signed in Catalonia, around 30% more than in December. 

The total value of mortgages was €1.08 billion, almost a quarter more than the previous month, and the average interest rate went up for the seventh month in a row, reaching 2.65% across Spain – roughly a third of mortgages were signed with a variable rate and the remaining at a fixed rate. 

Fixed rate taking over

The average interest rate stood at 1.81% in June, when the figure began to rise significantly. 

According to a recent report by Asufin, an association of banking users, 70.7% mortgages in 2022 were fixed rate, a figure that has skyrocketed since 2015, when the figure stood at 7.37% and the overwhelming majority of mortgages were signed with a variable rate.

 

Over €220,000 for a flat

Despite increasing costs, sales of homes were on the rise in 2022. According to a report published by the Property Registry last week, sales increased by 14.7% last year compared to the previous one – 102,231 deals were signed in Catalonia.

The same source revealed that the average price for a flat was €221,162, around 4.3% more than in 2021 and above the Spanish average for 2022, which stood at €188,036.