The good news continues for those intending to buy a house by taking out a mortgage. After the new legislation on defaulters and the decisions of the ECB which could have a slight impact on the new contracts, comforting data also comes from the ABI. According to the Italian Banking Association, the average rate on new home purchase transactions stood at 2,40%, a percentage that represents an all-time low (2,49% the previous month; 5,72% at the end of 2007).
The tendency of customers to prefer fixed rates over variable rates has not changed, around two-thirds of new loans are in fact fixed-rate mortgages. The monthly report also underlines that the average rate on new business financing operations stood at 1,90% against 2,03% the previous month (5,48% at the end of 2007). The average rate on total loans was 3,20%.
As regards loans to customers disbursed by banks operating in Italy, the amount settled at 1.826,8 billion euro. A clearly higher figure, by almost 150 billion, than the total amount of deposits from customers: 1.678,2 billion euro.
Bank loans granted to households and businesses also rose (+0,4% compared to February 2015), up compared to the -0,6% of the previous month and in sharp contrast with the -4,5% recorded in November 2013, when it had reached the negative peak.
That of February is a result in line with the values of April 2012.
On the other hand, as regards the total amount of outstanding household mortgages, in January, this recorded a positive change of 0,8% compared to the end of January 2015, thus confirming the recovery of the mortgage market. From the end of 2007, before the start of the crisis, to date loans to the economy have increased from 1.673 to 1.826,8 billion euros, those to households and businesses from 1.279 to 1.414 billion euros.
Speaking of interest rates, in February 2016, the average rate on new transactions for the purchase of homes stood at 2,40%, while that on total bank funding from customers (sum of deposits, bonds and repurchase agreements in euro to households and non-financial companies) in Italy stood at 1,14% (1,16% the previous month; 2,89% at the end of 2007).
Finally, the rate on deposits was 0,49% (0,50% the previous month), that on repurchase agreements at 1,31% (1,26% the previous month). Bond yield confirmed at 2,94%
The spread between the average rate on loans and the average rate on funding from households and non-financial companies remains at particularly low levels in Italy, amounting to 2016 basis points in February 206 (209 basis points the previous month). Before the onset of the financial crisis, this spread exceeded 300 points.
