Fixed mortgages have been the most popular during 2023 and accounted for 71.79% of total contracts. Mixed mortgages were 25.75% of the contracts, while variable mortgages accounted for only 2.46%. These are data that have been made public by Housfy Hipotecas, a mortgage brokerage company with a presence throughout the State.
The second half of the year consecrated this change in trends. Between August and December 2023, variable mortgages as such became extinct. In a country with a long variable tradition, much of this demand is now absorbed by mixed mortgages.
Unlike in the past, fixed mortgages are now the most interesting, due to their stability, for those profiles to whom banks give generous interest rates.
But the mixed ones conquer their space in the market, mainly because their nature makes them more accessible for those profiles who are just looking to get a mortgage.
Its fixed interest rate during the first years is lower than that of 30-year fixed mortgages. This reduces the payment of the initial installments and, therefore, reduces the debt ratio of families, a number that banks set to grant mortgages.
In addition, mixed mortgages are being sold as the best option to be able to withstand these first years of high Euribor, with many facilities for changing the conditions of the mortgage when it moves to its variable section if market interests fall.
And variable mortgages are, by their nature, more flexible than fixed mortgages, since their interest rate adjusts to the market. If rates have fallen when it is time to move to the variable tranche, it would be possible to move to a lower fixed mortgage without having to financially compensate the bank for the financial loss that the novation entails.
After a year of interest rate increases, Joan Balasch, operations manager at Housfy Hipotecas, predicts that “we have already reached the end of this bullish policy of the European Central Bank.” Rates would remain stable for much of 2024, then decline throughout the second half of 2024, Balasch predicts.
A variable mortgage is not recommended to avoid a high Euribor: “In a period of 6 months or a year the Euribor will not drop enough to be comparable to mixed mortgages, which we currently get at a TIN from 1.60% to 2.50 %”, says the mortgage specialist.
“It could be more advisable,” he concludes, “to sign a cheaper mixed loan now and then, when the rate scenario improves, have the possibility of subrogating the loan at a lower fixed interest,” taking advantage of the low commissions during the variable tranche. .
