Significant changes have taken place when buying and selling property since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many families were affected from the initial paralysis and stalemate due to unstable and fragile economic conditions as a result of Temporary Employment Regulations (Expediente de Regulación Temporal de Empleo, ERTE), to the current state when the buy and sell markets have clearly recovered. All of the aforementioned have shaken up the housing sector, as well as the impact on financing property. 2021 should end on a very positive note and this success should solidify in 2022.
Determining whether the mortgage market continues to grow in 2022 could be employment stability, sustainability of sale prices, mortgage flexibility, and savings.
If deals don’t fall for what is left of the year, 2021 will end with more than 400,000 mortgages, many more than the 338,000 closed during 2020 and 361,000 during 2019.
Carles Solé, Tecnotramit’s Mortgage Loan Manager, points out for 2022: ‘Short-term mortgages should be borrowed at variable rates since interests guided by the EURIBOR will remain negative during the following fiscal years. On the other hand, it is advised long-term loans are borrowed at fixed rates given how they are selling nowadays. This guarantees sure and acceptable payments.’
Independent of the type of mortgage the consumer chooses, digital mortgages are becoming ever more popular. This is because Covid-19 has transformed technology in a basic component in our everyday lives. These mortgages offer consumers obvious advantages since they are easy, save time and money, and are a more seamless product as all is recorded.
Even with the sector’s positivity, we will have to wait for the new property law to come into effect to verify the real impact it has on the mortgage market. For now, 2021 will end optimistically because mortgage balances rose for the first time in over a decade.