According to the Deco/Dinheiro&Direitos simulation, the mortgage payment paid to the bank increased again in March in floating rate contracts, with an expected increase of 185 euros over the six-month period compared to the last revision.
So a customer with a 30-year loan worth €150,000, indexed to the six-month Euribor – the most commonly used in home loan contracts in Portugal – and with a ‘spread’ (the bank’s profit margin) of 1%, will pay from March €727.85, which represents an increase of €185.57 compared to the last assessment in September.
With a loan under the same conditions (amount and repayment period), but indexed to the three-month Euribor, the customer now pays 685.34 euros, 67 euros more than in December.
These values were calculated taking into account the Euribor averages in February of 3.135% for six months and 2.640% for three months.
As for Euribor-indexed loans with a term of 12 months, the mortgage payment – for a loan under the above conditions – will be EUR 763.06 from next month, an increase of EUR 303.33 compared to what it has been paying since March 2022 .
In this case, the value was calculated taking into account the average of the 12-month Euribor in February, which was 3.534%.
The evolution of Euribor interest rates is closely related to increases or decreases in ECB interest rates.
After several years in negative territory, the Euribor started to rise more sharply since February 4, after the European Central Bank (ECB) admitted that it may raise key interest rates due to the rise in inflation in the Eurozone.
Since then, the ECB has already raised its base rate five times, which means that the amount customers pay on loans, especially home loans, is rising, leaving many families in trouble.
Given the deteriorating cost of home loans, the government approved a diploma (in force until the end of 2023) that sets out the conditions under which banks must offer customers a credit renegotiation to avoid default situations. According to information from the major banks, thousands of customers are already renegotiating their loans.
Source: DN
