MADRID, 26 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The number of mortgages constituted on homes fell by 2% last February compared to the same month in 2022, to a total of 35,900 loans, according to data released this Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

With the year-on-year decrease in February, the home mortgage firm returns to negative rates after it rose 2.9% year-on-year in January. Prior to that, in December 2022, this indicator posted a year-on-year decline of 8.8% after 21 months of consecutive year-on-year increases.

The average amount of mortgages constituted on homes rose 1.2% year-on-year in the second month of the year, to 143,413 euros, while the capital lent fell 0.9%, to 5,148.5 million euros.

After the rise in interest rates agreed by the central banks to try to contain inflation, the average interest rate for all mortgage loans stood at 3.21% in February, its highest figure since March 2017, with an average term of 23 years.

In the case of homes, the average interest was 2.86%, its highest value since May 2017, with an average term of 24 years.

Last February, 34.3% of home mortgages were established at a variable rate, while 65.7% were signed at a fixed rate. The average interest rate at the beginning was 2.70% for variable-rate home mortgages and 2.96% in the case of fixed-rate ones.