Mortgages in conflict. Some at the limit of their possibilities. The rise in interest rates is increasingly complicating the economy for many families with variable rate loans. The Euribor has already been rising for 16 months, so the credits that must be reviewed in accordance with this index are already suffering a price increase of more than 50% in their quotas. This circumstance is, for many, a heavy burden on their economy that is added to persistent inflation. This is the case of Arantxa García, from Madrid, who summarizes her situation with “no matter how good your salary is, it’s crazy”.

Their problem is one more among thousands and thousands of families with variable rate mortgages in Spain. Some were mortgaged years ago and others have no choice but to mortgage now. At the moment, three out of ten mortgages linked to the Euribor established on homes are according to data from the National Institute of Statistics.

Arantxa bought her home in 2008 and took out a variable mortgage of 220,000 euros with BBVA. Thirty years to pay it. Until a month ago, his fee was 570 euros. But in April, she was hit by “the overdrive”, as she says. Now he has to settle 801 euros a month. “I’m sure there will be evictions because I can’t imagine how people can afford these upgrades.” She has savings and is starting to draw on them in anticipation of the benchmark going down in the medium term. He hopes that the rise in interest rates will not continue for many more months.

Daniel Gómez is in a similar situation. He bought a house in Valencia in 2010. It cost him 160,000 euros and he signed a mortgage with the former Popular for 200,000 euros to be paid in forty years. He claims that they also forced him to take out life insurance. He now has a debt with Santander of 145,000 euros. Until December he paid a monthly fee of 460 euros. That month the receipt rose to 682, 50% more. “I’m stuck, paying my mortgage is unaffordable”, he says, and he’s already thinking of asking his relatives for help. And the worst will come in just half a year, when I have to review my credit. “How much will it cost me? At 900 euros? I will have to sell the flat”, he regrets.

Daniel has started a negotiation process with Santander. “I called the bank and told them I want to change to a fixed rate.” But he assures that a wall has been found at this point. “They told me that, since there is a lot of time left for the review, they still can’t make me an offer”. Until the end of the year, therefore, all that remains is to resign and do financial “juggling”, he says, to continue paying the fees. The holidays this year? “There won’t be any”.

There are more dramatic cases. There are families on whom the previous real estate crisis is still brewing and who are now being affected by the current one again. This is the case of Alberto Guzmán, from Toledo, with two variable-rate mortgages, one for his main home and another inherited from his father. For the first, he contracted in 2007 with the old Caja Madrid, which later passed to Bankia and which is now managed by CaixaBank, he pays 518 euros every month. He has already spoken to his office and they have informed him that he will pay more than 800 euros in July, when he must update the loan. For the second, with Bankinter, he already pays 500 euros, when a year ago he paid 340. “We are shocked”, he explains. Having to pay 1,300 euros every month causes him “anxiety”. He explains that his almost daily goal is not to accumulate three unpaid full receipts, something he achieves with the help of friends who leave him money. “With three non-payments it would go to legal services”.

Financial institutions are indeed offering customers a gateway to convert their fixed mortgages into variable ones. The problem is that this operation involves extra expenses for families. “It would be too expensive for me”, says Alberto. His horizon: “Let’s see if the damn war in Ukraine ends. I used to be a well-to-do middle class and I’ve gone to the point where my electricity is cut off”, he explains with resignation.

Faced with this problem, the Government is studying additional measures to strengthen the code of good practices, to which only 9,000 mortgagees in conflict have subscribed. The Ministry of Economy plans to convene a review meeting of this mechanism with representatives of the banks in the coming days and, if necessary, strengthen it. Unides Podemos, for its part, has proposed doubling the bank tax and allocating a portion to mortgagees. He also wants variable rate mortgages to be able to become fixed at no cost to the citizen. It is a solution that the PP also defends. The coalition Government is preparing a new anti-inflation decree for the end of June in which, in addition to measures to contain the price of food, solutions for variable-rate mortgages could be included.