Spain mortgage average hits record 181,285 euros as August home sales rise 3.4%

Sales and new homes

Spain's National Statistics Institute (INE) reported on Monday, 26 October, that home sales reached 49,319 in August, up 3.4% from August 2025. Mortgages on homes numbered 33,841, a 2.3% rise on a year earlier and the highest August figure since 2022. Both series fell sharply from July, with sales down 19.7% and mortgages down 22% month on month, in a month usually marked by the summer holidays. July had recorded a 5.1% year-on-year drop in sales, so August marks a return to growth. For January to August, sales are still 2.3% lower than a year earlier, while mortgages are up 5.1%.

New-build homes accounted for 10,521 transactions, up 4.9%, while second-hand homes rose 3% to 38,798. Free-market homes made up 46,022 sales, or 93.3%, and protected housing 3,297, or 6.7%. Francisco Iñareta, an expert at the property portal Idealista, struck a cautious note about the rebound.

“Despite the slight recovery in August, the trend in sales volume is still downward.”

He pointed out that the 700,649 homes sold over the past 12 months were 1% fewer than in the previous year.

Second-hand homes38,798

New-build homes10,521

Second-hand homes

38798 transactions

New-build homes

10521 transactions

Data from the article text

Loan size and interest rates

The average mortgage reached 181,285 euros in August, up 7.7% from a year earlier and the highest figure in the series. Capital lent rose 10.2%, to 6,134 million euros in one report and 6,135 million in another. The average interest rate on new home loans rose to 3.08%, from 3.01% in July and 2.88% in August 2025. Fixed-rate loans made up 64.1% of August mortgages, with an average initial rate of 3.16%, while the 35.9% taken at variable rates started at an average of 2.95%. The average term was 26 years. The averages do not yet reflect the 25-basis-point increase the European Central Bank made in September.

2025-082.88%

2026-073.01%

2026-083.08%

2025-08

2.88 %

2026-07

3.01 %

2026-08

3.08 %

Data from the article text

Regional split

Mortgage signings grew most in Extremadura (41.8%), Navarra (23.2%) and the Valencian Community (11.8%), and fell in La Rioja (27.7%), the Balearic Islands (21.8%) and Madrid (5.8%). Sales followed a similar geography, with Extremadura up 32.1%, Cantabria up 21.7% and Murcia up 12.6%. Sales fell 19% in La Rioja, 9.4% in Castilla-La Mancha, 7.1% in Castilla y León, 5.3% in Navarra and 2.6% in Madrid. In absolute terms, Andalusia led August sales with 9,427 transactions, followed by Catalonia with 8,407, the Valencian Community with 7,571 and Madrid with 5,119.

Extremadura41.8%

Navarra23.2%

Valencian Community11.8%

La Rioja-27.7%

Balearic Islands-21.8%

Madrid-5.8%

Extremadura

41.8 %

Navarra

23.2 %

Valencian Community

11.8 %

La Rioja

-27.7 %

Balearic Islands

-21.8 %

Madrid

-5.8 %

Data from the article text

Year-to-date outlook

Sales totalled 714,237 in 2025, the highest since 2007, and 2026 is running below that level. One report puts January to August sales at 458,200 and another at 464,000, both 2.3% below the same period of 2025. Ricard Garriga, chief executive of Trioteca, is convinced 2026 will close with more than half a million mortgages. Fotocasa Research expects fixed-rate loans, now 64.1% of monthly signings, to remain the preferred choice because of the payment certainty they offer.