Mortgages restart in Italy within a context that presents favorable conditions for credit recovery. In the first months of 2015, loans for house purchase show a further slowdown in the decline in outstanding volumes, equal to -0,3% y/y in April, a continuous recovery of gross disbursements and a slightly positive monthly net flow.
This is what emerges from the "Mortgage market monitor" published by Intesa Sanpaolo. The investigation, carried out at the banks Bank lending survey, as well as highlighting an increase in subrogations and substitutions, records a return of interest in i fixed rate mortgages, despite the variable rate still being the first choice of Italians.
As Intesa Sanpaolo observes, "This recomposition is connected to the significant drop in the rate charged on fixed-rate mortgages, which has reached historic lows".
In the first quarter of 2015, low interest rates and the possibility to renegotiate or restructure existing mortgages caused an increase in loan applications. Also contributing to the improvement was the renewed confidence in the future trend of the economy and the market for stocks residential properties.
Intesa Sanpaolo also points out that the improvement in the general climate on the mortgage market is accompanied by the first signs of recovery in the sale and purchase of residential properties which, starting in 2015, began a slow recovery from the lows reached after the long fall that began in 2007.
However, the Turin bank invites us to analyze the data implemented with caution, not underestimating the impact of the introduction, at the beginning of 2014, of a more favorable registration tax regime than the previous one, which would have led to the transfer of contracts from the last part of the 2013 to early 2014.
In fact, the adjusted data show growth of 2014% in 1,7 compared to 2013, tempered by a more modest 0,8% y/y in the first quarter of 2015. At the same time, residential property prices fell, with a -5 % of main homes and -2,2% of new homes.
