J.L.M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | The Economy Ministry has published updated figures on the Social Housing Fund, set up in 2012 initially with 5.892 homes provided by the banks to help out the more vulnerable familys in Spain. At the moment, there are over 9.866 homes which have been handed over voluntarily by Spain’s lenders, with 9.020 allocated at end-2016.
Spain’s mortgage system, which is one of the cheapest and with the best financing conditions in Europe, has allowed more than 80% of families to own their own home. So a priority should be put on maintaining the system’s characteristics, in terms of depth and stability.
The 12-month Euribor, which is the reference used for the majority of variable rate mortgages in Spain, has been in an uninterrupted downwards trend since 2012 and is about to complete one year in negative territory. Analysts consensus is that the Euribor has already touched bottom, and that it will begin to rise gradually from the second quarter.
MADRID | The Corner | Spanish mortgage business continued down the road and registered 13.4% less than last year in April’s property records. According to the National Statistical Institute (INE), the loaned capital for housing reached €1.5 billion, which is 8% less than the 2013 figure. Thus, the average amount of mortgages on dwellings in Spain is €100,394, i.e. +6.2% more than the previous year. The boards of technical architects awarded 11,680 building licences for new houses in the first four months of the year (4M2014), 9% less year-over-year. This construction visa remain far away from September 2006 maximum where they were beyond 255,000 in four months.
MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | Spanish banks are starting to offer mortgages and commercial loans again, as their staff advices clients to buy and invest, spending is back on track, even if people are putting it on their credit cards. A sign of recovery cash flowing.
NEW YORK | The institution that UK government is thinking of establishing, similar to US giant government controlled agencies Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, will improve the housing market and therefore the economy. But it comes with the risk of a bubble.
CAPITAL MADRID, José Sánchez Mendoza.– Pay more, almost double, but with a comfortable loan that covers all or most of the amount. It’s a win-win situation, don’t you think? Though it may seem, this is not the lamp seller in a Moroccan bazaar’s talking but the candy that banks put in front of consumers to get rid of the housing stock that hampers their balance sheets. According to a study…
MADRID | The Euribor, at which most home mortgages in Spain are referenced, has fallen 0.001 percentage point in its daily rate down to 1.044 percent. This is the tenth consecutive occasion in which the inter-euro zone banking rate decreases to a historical minimum. Its average level in July was of 1.127 percent, one point less than a year ago, causing a significant reduction of mortgages’ total debt, on both new ones…
NEW YORK | One of the current most visited exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is not dedicated to pop-art nor surrealistic sculpture but to mortgages. Foreclosed calls the home ownership American dream into question and shows how the suburban development has been not only environmentally aggressive in some states but financially unsound. “Many of the low-income people who bought at the height of the bubble…
NEW YORK | One of the keys of the severe financial crisis in the US were “liar loans”, given to people who did not even have a job. Four years later, many worthy homebuyers are paying for that. Banks have become so restrictive in their mortgages that many citizens are frozen out of the housing market, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday. Bernanke said home mortgage credit outstanding…