Portugal mortgages highest since 2008

Portugal’s banking sector dished out the highest number of mortgages since 2008 with €1.2Bn lent in December 2020 alone, bringing the total for the year to €11.4Bn.

They are levels of bank lending not seen since the dawn of the Great Recession when the consequences of the US sub-prime housing market bubble burst.
According to data published by the Bank of Portugal, the amount of lending Portugal’s banks handed out in December alone was the highest amount since July 2008.
In fact, the amount of mortgages issued last year was a 7.14% increase on the €10.6Bn in 2019, also a maximum since 2008.
However, consumer lending went down in 2020 compared to 2019. In December, €359 million was lent, whereas in 2019, €5.2Bn had been lent for the entire year, in 2020 this amount had fallen to €4.3Bn or -17.45%, the lowest level of consumer lending since 2017.
In terms of loans to families ‘for other ends’, €189 million was lent in December, bringing the total to €2.2Bn for the year. This amount also corresponds to a fall on the €2.3Bn made available by the banks in 2019. (-5.21%).
Adding all the loans up for all ends, Portugal’s banks lent €17,9Bn in loans to families last year.
Nevertheless, lumping all the loans together, there was a fall of -1.53% compared to 2019 where the amount was €18.12Bn.