The recovery of the mortgage market continues. Thanks to the very favorable credit conditions, loans to households for the purchase of homes show a further rise, while interest rates remain at historic lows. This is reported in Intesa Sanpaolo's "Mortgage market monitor".
Also in the 2nd quarter of 2016, loans to households recorded a growth of 1,5% year on year, a percentage not seen for four years. A part of operations remains determined by renegotiations of existing loans, but the incidence of these operations on total disbursements seems to have stabilised.
In the first quarter of 1, new contracts increased by 2016% compared to the same period of 45, while renegotiations remained equal to approximately 2015% of total disbursements, a percentage in line with the previous three quarters. Dynamics made possible by the continuous reduction in the level of interest rates on loans for home purchase.
Also in the 2nd quarter of 2016, the decline affected both the variable rate and the fixed rate. In particular, the very low level reached by the fixed rate and the reduced spread between it and the floating rate – halved compared to two years earlier – continue to justify the success of fixed-rate mortgages and the relevance of the renegotiations of existing loans.
The trend recorded by loans for the purchase of homes is also favored by the positive attitude shown by the banks in boosting the supply of credit. According to the Bank Lending Survey, the 2nd quarter of 2016 was characterized by a strong easing of the offer criteria applied for the granting of mortgages.
“It was above all low interest rates and consumer confidence that stimulated the increase in requests – reads the report. Furthermore, in comparison with the other banks in the Eurozone, the attitude of Italian banks is confirmed to be more positive and also on the demand side the expansion recorded in Italy continues to be much stronger than in other countries”.
The analysis is also confirmed by the data concerning the number of sales of residential homes, up by 20,6% y/y, but also the increase in the sale of appurtenant properties (+17,3% y/y).
As far as prices are concerned, despite a slowdown in the downward trend, based on the dossier, there was a drop of 1,2% y/y while the figure for the 4th quarter of 2015 was revised significantly downwards (-1,7, XNUMX% y/y).
