The bank prefers to finance your fridge than the apartment

BarcelonaThe era of maximum ease for mortgages has not ended completely, but it is losing steam. Banks are detecting that the demand for credit to buy homes is deflating. The growth rate of new production is decelerating and, surely, it will continue to do so, taking into account the prices that housing has reached and the increased cost of its financing.

The European Central Bank (ECB) kept the cost of money the same at its meeting last Thursday, but the sector and analysts expect it to raise it again to 2.75% in December and reach 3% at the beginning of next year. This is indicated by the trend of the 12-month daily Euribor, the rate at which banks lend money to each other and which serves as a reference for variable-interest mortgages.

Most current new mortgages are signed with a fixed interest rate, but the new offer is becoming more expensive. The average for fixed-interest loans to buy housing stood at 2.79% in October, compared to 2.43% a year ago; the differential for variable-interest ones at 0.64, compared to 0.61 in October 2025, and mixed ones, with a differential of 0.80, compared to 0.74 a year ago, according to the comparator Kelisto.

In this context, financial institutions have found another vein: consumer credit, which is used to finance everything from buying a car to appliances, furniture, electronic devices, travel, or renovations. This is shown by the results of the main banks in the third quarter of the year: at CaixaBank, the year-on-year increase in mortgages was 6.3%, but that of consumer credit was 9.8%. At Banco Sabadell, 3.5% in mortgages, but 9.8% in consumer credit. And at BBVA, 2.7% in the former and 9.2% in the latter. Santander, which concentrates the business of financing consumption in the Openbank brand, also had a positive performance.

Household consumption, the component with the most weight in the gross domestic product (GDP), although it is growing at a slower pace, still does so above the average of the economy as a whole. And banks have found a good business in it. It also turns out that, although they do not maintain the connection with clients for as many years as with a mortgage, they charge more interest and earn more from it: an average interest of 7.16% in August, compared to 6.96% in July or 7.12% a year ago, according to the Bank of Spain.