They had never really left. But the inertia of the market, with the European Central Bank (ECB) raising interest rates, led to a time when it seemed that fixed mortgages were going to give up their leadership position to variable ones. Nothing could be further from the truth. In July, 59% of the new home loans that were signed were of this typeaccording to statistics published yesterday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). This is the highest figure since June 2023 and confirms the upward trend of recent months.
Fixed loans became the preferred option for new mortgage holders in January 2021, when they reached 51.7% of new signatures. With negative interest rates, banks had been offering fixed mortgages for months at very attractive prices to ensure income that a negative Euribor denied them. In July 2022 they reached 75.4% of the market. But then, with the inflationary crisis caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus and the invasion of Ukraine in February of that year, the European Central Bank (ECB) swerved its monetary policy and began to raise rates.
Change in offer
In the wake of this movement, banks began to make fixed mortgages more expensive and improve the price of variable ones to take advantage of the expected – and later confirmed – rise in the Euribor.
Now, however, the tables have turned again. With the economy somewhat erratic and inflation more controlled, the ECB has begun to lower rates again, the Euribor has begun to plummet and banks have once again resorted to fixed mortgages, unleashing a war with this product as the main demand. Entities like CaixaBank now offer loans of this type for 25 years at 2.68% APRas highlighted by the mortgage comparator Rastreator, which has confirmed the banks’ price cuts on these products.
In total, the signing of home loans shot up 23.5% in the seventh month of the year
At a global level, the mortgage market is moving towards a change of cycle, according to experts. After registering falls in 14 of the previous 16 months, in July it shot up 23.5%, to 36,260 operations, according to INE statistics.
The real estate portals attribute the improvement in July to greater dynamism due to the reduction in interest rates, as stated María Matos, Head of Studies and Spokesperson for Fotocasa.
Looking ahead to the coming months, Matos believes that this same rate drop will lower the conditions of access to mortgage credit offered by banks, “which will improve access to housing in the short term” and encourage operations.
Ferran Font, Head of Studies at Pisos.comalso believes that the coming months “will be marked by relaxation in rates”, which is already materializing in better mortgage conditions. “This situation will surely increase activity,” a conclusion shared by the general director of Idealista/mortgages, Julián Villén.