Press release

EMF Publishes Quarterly Review Q2 2019

Brussels, 28 November 2019 – For immediate release

The European Mortgage Federation (EMF) is delighted to announce the publication of its Quarterly Review of European Mortgage Markets for the second quarter (Q2) of 2019.

Produced in cooperation with the Federation’s national experts, the Quarterly Review provides the latest short-term developments in mortgage and housing markets across the EU. The publication highlights expert analytical commentary together with data tables and charts on the following key indicators:

• Total outstanding residential mortgage lending;
• Gross and net residential mortgage lending;
• Regulation & Government intervention;
• Nominal house price indices; and
• Mortgage interest rates.

Key Highlights from the Q2 2019 Quarterly Review

Macroeconomic context:

• During the second quarter of the year, the main macroeconomic indicators at European level continued growing on a yearly and quarterly basis. Therefore, despite the slowdown that started already last year, European GDP experienced a positive evolution together with the reduction of unemployment levels.

Market developments:

The evolution of the market in Q2 2019 was characterised by:

• A small contraction of the mortgage market with outstanding residential lending decreasing by 0.1% on a quarterly basis, the first since Q3 2016. Nevertheless, the year-on-year growth was 3.1%.
• After a marginal cooling down experienced the previous quarter in aggregate terms, house prices began to grow again, and most of the countries surveyed present a positive evolution of their price indexes.
• Several new measures have been introduced in different jurisdictions, mainly to prevent an overheating of the market and to address over-indebtedness.
• A lower average interest rate of our sample compared to the previous quarter has been recorded. Also, the variance on interest rates among jurisdictions has continued to decrease since Q4 2018.

The full Quarterly Review Q2 2019 can be accessed here.