Spain mortgage market records 14% growth in 2016

While the actual growth of Spain’s property market in 2016 is hard to accurately pin down owing to the different metrics that various bodies use to measure it, there can be little disagreement when it comes to mortgages…

After all, a mortgage is a mortgage is a mortgage. And the data from Spain’s central statistics institute has revealed that the number of mortgages approved in 2016 was 14% higher than 2015.

In total, some 281,328 mortgages were issued in Spain last year, with December 2016 marking the 29^th year-on-year increase in the space of 30 months, with 20,747 new mortgages signed off to new homebuyers.

This alone was a 6.9% increase on December 2015, and marked a continuation of a very welcome trend: one of increasing confidence in the Spanish property market, and further proof that both foreign and domestic buyers are driving this upturn in fortunes.

But perhaps the word ‘upturn’ does the trend a disservice. Upturn suggests something temporary, fleeting, when in fact the longevity appears set if the past 30 months are anything to go by.

Another interesting element of the data showed that the average loan capital in 2016 was 2.8% higher than in 2015, which marks not only a general rise in property prices (which, again, range in number depending on whose figures you believe) but also a growing confidence among banks and lending institutions in the solvency of borrowers. In other words, more Spaniards have jobs that are secure and paying better, prompting them to feel confident in buying a house, and driving assurances among banks that the economy is performing strongly.

In numbers terms, the average mortgage approved in December was €112,680, while over the course of the year it was €109,759.