Mortgage fever: Catalonia hits 15-year high for home loans

BarcelonaThe drop in the Euribor and the expected rise in house prices have strongly boosted mortgage issuance, which continues the momentum of recent months and is now at its highest level in the last fifteen years. In 2025, mortgage issuance in Catalonia recorded its best June and the best first half of the year since 2010.

Mortgages issued in June reached 7,154 in Catalonia, the highest figure in the last three months, while across Spain the number is declining by 41,834 transactions, according to data published this Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). However, in the first half of the year, 243,275 loans were issued to purchase homes in Spain, 25% more than in the same period last year and the highest figure since 2011.

Mortgages and sales, at the same pace

This data comes at a time when the price of apartments is at an all-time high – in the first quarter of this year the price of housingsurpassed its all-time high, established since the second quarter of 2007, at the height of the bubble, while the cost of credit is going in the opposite direction, following the European Central Bank's (ECB) interest rate reduction policy, which saw up to seven rate cuts until last July, when it decided to halt the price cuts in the United States, pending the decision. This has caused the one-year Euribor, the benchmark for variable-rate mortgages, to reach its lowest level last May. at its lowest level since August 2022.

"The mortgage market is following the sales market: there's a direct correlation," Òscar Gorgues, manager of the Barcelona Chamber of Urban Property, explains to ARA. The truth is that the relationship between sales and mortgages became unbalanced two years ago: while transactions were on the rise, mortgages have increased at a slower pace, indicating the access to the market of solvent demand that could access property without needing a mortgage, either because of foreign demand or because the locals had family support.

Price bubble, not financial

Now that mortgages and transactions are at their highest, some consider this situation a new bubble, as detailed in this study on the cities of Barcelona and Madrid. In any case, it would be a price bubble, not a financial one; that is, prices are disconnected from fundamental economic variables, such as wages or economic growth. The financial bubble is related to demand fueled by financing of dubious solvency. "The mortgage market is very solvent because we have very low default rates, and mortgage terms are very orthodox: they are carefully studied and limited to those who are solvent and can repay them," explains Gorgues, who believes that a financial bubble like the one during the 2008 crisis is not being created. "No."

In fact, the mortgage broker Trioteca has warned about this increase in prices: "As long as mortgages rise, prices will also continue to rise," said CEO Ricard Garriga. The average mortgage price in June stood at €182,212, the highest figure since May 2022, when the average loan exceeded €200,000. In Spain as a whole, this amount is considerably lower: it stands at €168,363. The average interest rate on new home mortgages closed at 2.99%, marking five consecutive months below 3%, but with an upward trend from the 2.96% recorded in February.

72% of mortgages originated in June are fixed-rate, while 28% are variable-rate, this gap being the highest since August 2022. However, it should be noted that within this 28%, the majority of mortgages are fixed, but the INE sets them. "In this context, the variable rate is practically dead," he adds. The average term remains at 25 years.