The mortgage firm maintained its momentum in August following the ECB’s first rate cut.

The number of home mortgages rose 8.8% in August compared with the same month in 2023, totaling 30,676 loans. In turn, the average interest rate was higher than in the previous month, according to data published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

In particular, the average interest rate in August amounted to 3.30%This is up from 3.17% recorded in July and the highest since April last year when it was 3.38%.

It is worth remembering that last June the European Central Bank made its first interest rate cut of the year, followed by two more; the last one just a week ago, leaving the base rate at 3.25%.

Every time the European supervisor lowers the price of money, the market expects the Euribor rate, which is used in Spain for mortgages, to fall. This affected both the mortgage firm’s performance and the purchase and sale of real estate.

According to INE, in August sales – with and without mortgages – registered an increase of 0.9% compared to the same month in 2023, in total 49,453 operations. However, the chain of transactions has been increasing for two months year on year after they jumped by more than 19% in July, the first month after the start of the ECB’s monetary flexibility cycle.

As ABC has already explained, analysts expect fixed-rate mortgages below 3% to be signed by the third quarter of the year. Currently, the average mortgage interest rate is slightly higher than a year ago. (3.24%) and at the same time, rates have exceeded 3% for 17 months in a row.

As for the average mortgage amount, in August it increased by 5.3% year on year, reaching 145,352 euros. Loan capital, in turn, increased by 14.6%, to 4,458.8 million euros, and the average term was 24 years.

7.2% of sales are from subsidized housing.

On the sales side, year-on-year sales growth in August was driven by a recovery in new apartment transactions, which increased 7.6% year-on-year to 9,929 transactions, as used home transactions fell 0.7% to 39,524 operations.

One by one, 92.8% of the houses transferred were free. and 7.2% – protected; Transactions in the former rose 1% year over year to 45,880 transactions, while purchases and sales of subsidized housing fell 0.8% to 3,573 transactions.