Press release

PRESS RELEASE

Mortgage and housing market momentum continued in Q3 2018

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Brussels, 17January 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 third quarter (Q3) of 2018.

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:

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

Key highlights for Q3 2018 Quarterly Review 

A new structure:

• The Housing Market section has been divided into two categories: housing supply and house prices. This new structure is designed to provide a broader perspective of housing and mortgage markets in Europe.

Market developments:

The evolution of the market in the third quarter of 2018 was characterised by:

• Overall continued stability throughout the market
• Modest positive growth of gross mortgage lending in aggregate terms for the EU countries of our sample, leading to a 2.5% growth in residential mortgage outstanding y-o-y
• Very small changes in interest rates overall in the quarter, a continuing trend, with an increase of only 0.16% on average y-o-y. Two countries, Hungary and Romania, saw slightly larger increases of more than 0.50% in the weighted average interest rate during Q3 2018
• A heterogeneous picture across the EU’s housing markets in terms of housing starts and completions
• A general upward trend in house prices, with an average increase of 5.53 percentage points

  Luca Bertalot, EMF-ECBC Secretary General, commented:

“European Mortgage Markets continued the positive momentum of 2018 during the third quarter of the year, which was characterised by overall stability coupled with modest growth in gross lending and mortgage loans outstanding, all against a backdrop of largely unchanged interest rates. Across the countries in our sample, regional divergences continue to be observed in housing markets despite the fact that most countries are experiencing similar frictions between supply and demand.”

 The full Quarterly Review – Q3 2018 and the archive of previous editions (back to Q3 1998) are available on the EMF website.