Financial entities have launched a mortgage offensive to attract high-income clients, with offers of fixed rates of up to 2.4%, anticipating a foreseeable drop in the Euribor despite the fact that it still exceeds 3.7%, according to the data presented today by Trioteca, a digital platform that markets mortgages from 37 financial entities.
Ricard Garriga, general director of the platform, points out that in the last month this mortgage war is spreading to families with lower incomes, when the credit they request is less than 60% of the value of the home, generally therefore in replacement purchases. .
In his opinion, the bank, after a “difficult” 2023 in which the mortgage firm fell 19%, considers that “in 2024 it is essential to recover hiring” and is going to relax its credit granting criteria to extend the mortgage war to all profiles.
Gonzalo Bernardos, professor of Economics at the UB and advisor to the platform, pointed out that in 2023, faced with the record rise in the Euribor, “banks exercised extreme caution to avoid increasing delinquencies and were very strict in granting loans: fee will not exceed 35% of income. And only in families with incomes of more than 6,000 euros per month were they more flexible. Even so, mortgages for more than 95% of the appraised value have been given in dribs and drabs.”
This bias towards financing the upper class has led to a 22.3% increase in the average price of the home purchased by the platform's clients in the first quarter, to 239,667 euros, while the average mortgage they received was maintained. at 150,667 euros, since buyers who obtained credit “increasingly request a lower financing percentage, providing more savings to the purchase,” added Garriga.
According to the platform's data, in March the average nominal interest rate (TIN) of the fixed-rate mortgages that they brokered was 2.71%, while in the mixed mortgages it was 2.29% and in the variable mortgages it was 2.29%. signed a differential of 0.3% with respect to the Euribor. “All rates have seen a decline, but especially those on fixed-rate mortgages,” he noted.
These offers have left the number of mortgages signed at a variable interest rate (1.42%) “very residual”, while 48.07% of the mortgages were signed at a fixed rate and 50.51% at a mixed rate. , which is generally marketed with the first 5 years of a fixed fee.
The search for security by financial entities is reflected in the profile of people who obtained credit: in the first quarter, 19% were civil servants, although this percentage has decreased slightly in March, to 18.15%. However, the vast majority (65%) were salaried employees, with only 7.36% being self-employed and 1.22% being entrepreneurs.
Garriga and Bernardos ruled out that the implementation of ICO guarantees to finance the down payment when purchasing a home will have a great impact on the market. “There is talk of about 50,000 loans, when there are more than 2 million families for whom entry is the barrier to accessing property,” recalled Bernardos, who considered that the bank will continue to prioritize attracting clients with high purchasing power. those who can offer other services.
