Mortgages constituted on homes rose 9% in March compared to a year ago, with a total of 46,661 transactions signed, which is the highest figure in this month since 2010, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). In this way, the home mortgage firm has increased for 21 consecutive months. The average amount of these operations reached 174,132 euros, with an increase of 10.1%. The borrowed capital increased by 20%, up to 8,125 million euros. 36.2% of home mortgages were established at a variable rate and 63.8% at a fixed rate. In this case, this percentage has been above 60% for seven months. Regarding the average interest rate, it was 2.84% and the average term was 25 years. Specifically, 2.86% for variable rate home mortgages and 2.83% for fixed rate mortgages. There are now 14 consecutive months with a rate below 3%. Regarding those with registry changes, the total number of mortgages with modifications in their conditions registered in the property registries decreased by 28.3% in March in annual rate, with a total of 10,549. Of them, 82.2% were due to changes in interest rates. Novations (or modifications with the same financial institution) were reduced by 25.2%, with 7,574 operations, and subrogations to the debtor (the owner changes) by 43.7%, with 2,148. On the contrary, subrogations to the creditor (change of entity) increased by 8%, with 827 operations. By Autonomous Community, those that presented the greatest increases in the annual variation rate in the number of mortgages on homes in March were Comunidad Foral de Navarra (60.4%), Aragón (45.4%) and Comunidad de Madrid (19.1%). On the contrary, those that presented the greatest decreases were Galicia (-20.7%), Castilla y León (-16.6%) and the Basque Country (-12.3%). On the other hand, in the accumulated amount of the first quarter of the year, the number of mortgages to purchase a home has increased by 9.7%, with 131,554 operations, the highest figure in a first quarter since 2011. The capital lent has increased by 21.5%.
