The wounds of the real estate "boom" are far from having disappeared and so far this year 6,485 families have lost ownership of their main home due to not being able to pay the mortgage, according to data from the foreclosure statistics published today by the INE . Specifically, from March to June there were 3,165 families who lost their habitual residence, with a slight reduction of 4.7% compared to the 3,320 who suffered the same fate in the first quarter.
Mortgage foreclosures this year are at the highest levels since 2017, and in six of the last seven quarters the 3,000 foreclosure certifications registered in the property registries have been exceeded, according to INE data, when since mid By 2017 this figure had fallen below 2,000.
Real estate sources explained that the growth in recent months is partly due to the fact that the new mortgage law and a 2019 Supreme Court ruling clarified the requirements on the fees that had to be pending payment to start the execution, which has led to funds and financial entities to reactivate procedures that had been stopped for fear that the courts would shelve them.
The same sources explain that the creditor entities have also decided to accelerate the acquisition of home ownership in view of the fact that the upward cycle in real estate prices has ended: a delay in taking possession of the properties will mean that when they can sell them they must surely do so at lower prices than the current ones.
In the semester, the foreclosure of 1,477 homes owned by individuals who are not the habitual residence of their owners, mainly second homes, has also begun.
According to INE data, 49.7% percent of housing foreclosures started so far this year correspond to mortgages granted between 2005 and 2008, in the midst of a real estate boom, with 2007 as the worst year: from that year come over 16% of mortgages now foreclosed.
By autonomous communities, for their part, the most affected are those that experienced the bubble with the greatest intensity: Andalusia (2,040 homes), the Valencian Community (1,564) and Catalonia (1,455), which account for 51.6% of the procedures. In many areas of these communities, house prices are still more than 20% below those of the bubble, so those who bought flats those years cannot even sell the house to get rid of the debt, as if they could do homeowners in areas where prices have recovered.
The INE reminds that not all mortgage foreclosures that begin end with the release of their owners and that a home can be encumbered by more than one mortgage, so in the judicial procedure there could be several certifications of foreclosure.
In total, 7,115 foreclosures were initiated in the second half of the year, which is 10.7% less than the previous quarter and 27.4% less than in the same quarter of 2021. Those affecting homes accounted for 64 .6% of the total and 10.4% were homes owned by legal entities, such as developers or investors, with 739 foreclosures in the second quarter, 60.2% less than last year. For its part, another 2,500 foreclosures affected other types of urban property (premises, garages, offices, storage rooms, warehouses, etc.) to plots or rustic properties, 28% of the total.
