La concesión de hipotecas se lanza hacia la cota más alta desde la burbuja

In the first seven months of the year, mortgage lending in Spain has reached a record high since the 2008 property bubble burst, with new operations totaling 87 billion euros, surpassing the level seen in 2008. The volume of mortgage operations is expected to reach 87 billion euros for the entire year, equal to the 2008 figure. This is an unprecedented level for the market, having contracted sharply since then, with banks only providing 35.721 million euros in 2015.

Since then, there has been a recovery with ups and downs, but the latest three-year period has seen a significant jump.

Currently, the mortgage lending sector is facing a challenging situation. The rise in property prices and the shortage of available homes are not impacting the lending, which continues to benefit from strong demand. Despite expectations from experts for a slowdown, new mortgage applications are gaining momentum month after month.

Data from the Bank of Spain shows that June and July were the best months of the year for lending, with new operations exceeding 8 billion euros in both cases. This growth rate has outpaced all previous records, with 82.752 million euros in new lending in the first half of the year, a 21.7% increase (14.801 million euros) compared to 2024, which was already the best year in a decade.

The surge in mortgage lending can be attributed to two main factors. Firstly, the competitiveness of mortgage rates. Although the average rate has increased in the current European monetary environment, banks are adjusting their margins to the maximum to maintain a high level of production. Even as Euribor rises, mortgage rates have barely moved in July, from 2.93% to 2.94% TAE (annual equivalent rate, including all fees).

However, the average rate for new operations has increased by 11.3% in the first seven months of 2026, which is much lower than the 26% increase in the same period for the mortgage index. Currently, five institutions offer official offers below 3.5% fixed rate, with the majority of mortgage applications concentrated in this category, including Banca March, Openbank, Caja de Ingenieros, and Coinc.

For variable rates, another quartet of banks - Kutxabank, Banco Sabadell, Bankinter, and Coinc - offer spreads over Euribor that do not exceed 0.5%. Despite this, financial institutions provide even more attractive conditions to the most solvent clients through face-to-face negotiations or through mortgage brokers, who compete for new operations.

The other reason for the growth in lent volumes is the increasing average mortgage amount, driven by the impact of rising property costs, which forces families to finance higher amounts. In June, the average mortgage was 178,365 euros, exceeding the 172,535 euros in December of the previous year, according to the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).