According to banking supervisory data, the average interest rate on new mortgage credit operations decreased from 2.97% in May to 2.91% in June, marking the 19th decline in the past 20 months, with the exception of January 2025 when it increased by 0.03 percentage points.
This is also the lowest average interest rate on new operations since October 2022, when it was 2.76%.
The average interest rate for new mortgage operations dropped in both new and renegotiated contracts, with average rates declining by 0.04 and 0.13 percentage points to 2.87% and 3.11%, respectively.
Across the Eurozone, the average interest rate for new housing loan operations decreased by 0.01 percentage points to 3.29%, with Portugal offering the fifth lowest average rate, below the Eurozone average.
In June, 72% of new permanent residence housing loans were contracted at a mixed rate (with a fixed rate in the initial period of the contract followed by a variable rate period), which remained unchanged from May. These contracts represented 39% of the total housing credit stock.
The average interest rate for new mixed-rate operations was 2.78% in June, down by 0.04 percentage points from May, while new variable-rate operations saw the most significant reduction of 0.18 percentage points to 2.90%. In contrast, fixed-rate operations increased by 0.06 percentage points to 3.50%.
The average monthly payment for the stock of housing loans decreased by one euro in June compared to May, reaching 413 euros, the lowest value since September 2023.
The data released by the Bank of Portugal indicated that the six-month Euribor was the most used in new variable-rate mortgage operations in June, representing 50.6% of the total amount for new variable-rate operations.
The 12-month Euribor, which was the most used over the previous 22 months, accounted for 40.52% of the amount of new variable-rate operations, while the three-month Euribor represented 5.18%.
In terms of the total stock of housing loans, the six-month Euribor accounted for 37.74%, the 12-month Euribor for 32.28%, and the three-month Euribor for 25.28%.
