Property

Mortgage value outstripping number of new mortgages

There is now said to be a scarcity of luxury properties as well as of affordable housing. | Archive

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma02/03/2018 00:00

Information on mortgages from the National Statistics Institute shows that there was a seven per cent increase in the number of mortgages in the Balearics last year and a 23% rise in their value.

The Balearics was one of the regions of Spain where mortgage lending - in terms of value - increased the most. However, the rise in the number of mortgages was below the national average.

To be specific, there were 10,084 new mortgages in 2017. These had a total value of 1,607 million euros. For the second successive year, since economic crisis started to weaken, the value exceeded 1,000 million.

The value is firmly linked to the fact that there is high demand in the Balearics for luxury properties. Although the availability of these properties is itself said to becoming more scarce (thus pushing prices up even higher), there is also scarcity of affordable housing.

The discrepancy between the 7% increase in mortgages and the 23% rise in value is an indication of how the property market is operating, which isn't always to the benefit of the ordinary home buyer.