Portuguese amortized more than they asked for financing to buy house

In the year 2016, 57,912 new housing loan agreements totaling € 5.5 billion were made, according to the Bank of Portugal's report on the monitoring of the retail banking markets.
 

Although the credit market provides different ways of captivating new clients, the Portuguese have taken advantage to reduce their debts to the bank. The overall value of home loans declined by more than two billion euros, which means that there were more repayments than new loans. The Bank of Portugal also notes that in 2016, early repayments were made on home loan agreements amounting to 3.2 billion euros, 45.4% more than in the year 2015.
 

It was also verified that there was an increase in the average amount contracted in the new operations and that the Portuguese continue to have their loans indexed at a variable rate, although in the new contracts the 12-month Euribor was the most used indexer. As reported by Banco de Portugal, spreads have been falling, with the average value for the year 2016 being 1.98%.

Throughout the year, 31 thousand renegotiations were carried out, concerning about 28 thousand contracts, and 11% of the renegotiated contracts were in default.
 

Source: Jornal de Negócios