The number of mortgages for homes granted in Spain fell in December by -8.8% year-on-year and the average amount by -1.1%, so that the total amount granted fell by -9.2% year-on-year. These are the first year-on-year falls since February 2021, when the data still reflected the extraordinary setback experienced during the most acute stages of the pandemic. The average interest rate for residential mortgages in December reached 2.67%, with an average term of 24 years according to the INE, compared to a low of 2.47% in the year.
In cumulative terms, 463,600 mortgages were granted in 2022 at an average amount of €145,860 and for a total of €67.64 billion. These figures have not been seen in mortgages and total amount since mid-2010 and we have to go back to 2008 to reach the current average amount figures. As for the variation with respect to 2021, it was 10.0% for the number of mortgages granted, 5.8% for the average amount and 17.3% of the total volume granted.
With these data, all from INE records, it can be affirmed that 2022 was an extraordinary year in terms of mortgages being granted, both in number and in average and total amount, but also that the turning point, which had been expected for months, was reached in the last quarter of 2022.
Excess savings, much of them forced, generated during the pandemic (household savings in 2020 and 2021 were €138 billion higher than in the two preceding years) and interest rates that remained at very low or even negative levels until the beginning of 2022, created the conditions that explain the strong dynamism of the mortgage market when activity recovered after the pandemic.
