The mortgage market in Portugal continues to offer low interest rates. And in new home purchase financing transactions closed in January 2020, this trend was reinforced once again, with a reduction of 3 basis points (bp) to 1.07% compared to the previous month. In the first month of the year, loans for home purchases rose to €977 million, according to data from the Bank of Portugal (BdP).
The annual rate of change (ARC) for loans to individuals for housing was 1.1%, 0.1 percentage points higher than in the previous month. For consumer credit and other purposes, the average interest rates were 6.95% and 3.80%, respectively, up from 6.55% and 3.74% in December, according to the latest data from the regulator.
In the euro area as a whole, the average interest rates on loans to individuals for housing and consumption purposes were 4.1% and 6.0%, respectively, compared with 3.9% and 6.1% in December.
The average interest rate on new loans granted by national banks to non-financial companies was 2.30% (2.12% in December).
The interest rate on transactions above €1 million was 1.88% (1.85% in December) and that on transactions below €1 million was 2.59% (2.42% in December), increasing the spread between the two rates compared to the previous month.
The volumes of new transactions for housing, consumption, and other purposes totaled €977 million, €460 million, and €215 million, respectively.
Source: idealistanews