Record of mortgages on homes in 16 years in April
The name of credits grows by 18.5% and chains two years of increases
BarcelonaThe number of mortgages on housing in Catalonia reached 7,506 signatures during the past month of April, with a year-on-year increase of 18.5%. It is the April with the most housing mortgages signed since 2010, according to data published this Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
In fact, the statistics show that since June 2024 the number of housing mortgages has not stopped growing. A growth that accelerated this past April, before the interest rate hike that the European Central Bank (ECB) agreed to this June.
The average capital lent per mortgage amounts to 195,060 euros in April, 9.3% more than in the same month last year, when the average mortgage stood at 178,413 euros. In total, the capital lent by these mortgages amounts to 1,464 million euros, 29.6% more than in April last year.
The statistics show that, in Catalonia as a whole, almost 1,200 more mortgages were signed in April than in the same month last year, exceeding the threshold of 7,500 registrations. However, the figures remain far from the levels seen before the outbreak of the real estate bubble, when more than 20,000 mortgages were signed in April 2005.
By provinces, Girona leads the acceleration in housing mortgage signings, with 34.8% more year-on-year in April, reaching 814 operations. Next is Tarragona, with a growth of 20.5% and 823 mortgages, and Barcelona, which rises 17.2% to 5,562 operations. Lleida grows below the rest, by 2.3%, and registers 307 signatures during April. In average amount, the highest loans are in Barcelona, of 210,253 euros per operation (+9.1%), followed by Girona with 176,070 euros (+8.3%), Tarragona with 137,758 euros (+12.9%), and Lleida with 123,782 euros (+11.9%).
Taking data at the state level, Catalonia is the second autonomous community that registers the sharpest rise in the number of mortgage loans in April, only surpassed by Castilla-La Mancha, which grows 18.7% year-on-year, two tenths more than the Catalan figure. In absolute number of mortgages, Catalonia leads the ranking, with 7,506, followed by Andalusia (7,460), Madrid (6,305), and the Valencian Community (4,833).
Less than 3% interest
At the state level, the number of mortgages constituted on homes rose by 2.3% in April compared to the same month in 2025, totaling 40,010 loans, also the highest figure for an April month since 2010; at the state level, the signing of mortgages on homes has seen 22 consecutive months of increases. The average interest rate on housing loans stood at 2.90% in April, below March's 2.84% and the highest value since last November (2.97%). With the data from the fourth month of the year, there are now 15 consecutive months with a rate below 3%.
The average interest rate for mortgages constituted on homes managed to fall below 3% in February 2025 for the first time in almost two years and, for now, remains that way. According to Statistics, the average term of housing loans stood at 25 years in the fourth month of the fiscal year.
The average amount of mortgages constituted on homes at the state level rose by 11.1% year-on-year in April, to 173,331 euros, while the capital lent increased by 13.7%, to nearly 6,935 million euros. A little more than a third of housing mortgages, specifically 37.1%, were constituted in April at a variable rate, while 62.9% were at a fixed rate. The average initial interest rate was 2.97% for variable-rate mortgages and 2.86% for fixed-rate ones.