71% of Italians confess one desire above all: to pay off their mortgage. Aspiration contradicted by the use of debt and personal loans; but coherence is an uncertain virtue anyway. The fact remains that using a mortgage to buy a house is a sign of dynamism and courage, of desire for the future and economic recovery.
After months of uncertainty – and in a real estate market that is still not very “mobile” – some signs of liveliness seem to come from a recent survey on the taking out of new mortgages. According to the analysis conducted in recent days by Facile.it and Mutui.it, in the first four months of 2024 the request for financing increased by 17% compared to the same period of 2023. The average amount requested is also growing again (+ 1.9%) and the average value of properties subject to mortgage (+2%).
2023 was a complex year for the mortgage market, hit by the increase in interest rates and by less economic availability on the part of families, already struggling with the increase in inflation; but 2024, however, started positively, with increasing demand, driven above all by the improvement in the conditions offered by banks for fixed rates, which generated greater confidence among consumers towards the future.
SURROGATIONS ARE BEGINNING AGAIN
Subrogation requests are growing, driven by the favorable conditions offered by banks for fixed rates: in the first 4 months of 2024 they represented 26% of requests collected online, up by 9 percentage points compared to the same period of the previous year.
It should always be remembered that the subrogation operation is totally free: even if the bank asks to carry out a new appraisal on the house, you still won’t have to pay anything. Likewise, even if the bank carries out a new investigation, no expenses in this regard can be charged to you. Finally, even if the subrogation is done with a deed before the notary, the notary costs are borne by the new bank and you will not have to pay anything. To make a completely free subrogation, the new mortgage must have a capital identical to the residual capital of the mortgage that you intend to transfer and renegotiate.
Renegotiating a mortgage with the bank that granted it is possible but it is not the bank’s obligation to accept the request. The bank can easily refuse to carry out the renegotiation (it is often easier to convince it by bringing it a subrogation proposal received from another bank). If your bank agrees to renegotiate your mortgage, everything must happen through a simple private agreement without any need for a notary or additional costs. It can be renegotiated
-
the duration of the loan,
-
the interest rate applied,
-
its type (so you can switch from a fixed to a variable rate and vice versa).
THE OFFER: FIXED RATES BETTER
On the supply front, Facile.it found that in the first four months of the year the conditions proposed by the banks were overall favorable, in particular for fixed rates, with decreasing indices driven by the decrease in the IRS.
Looking at the best offers available today for a standard mortgage of 126,000 euros over 25 years (LTV 70%, the Loan to Value is the ratio between the sum loaned by a bank and the value of the guaranteed property), the fixed rates start from a TAN (nominal annual rate) of 2.59%, i.e. a monthly installment of 571 euros, or 90 euros less than the best installment available in May 2023. Such favorable conditions have not been seen since September 2022.
Even more advantageous indices for the so-called fixed rate green mortgages (for properties in energy class A or B): in this case the rates start from a TAN rate of 1.99% with a monthly installment of 533 euros.
The improvement in conditions also affected fixed rates on subrogation: today, those who want to change banks can find offers with TAN indices which, for a mortgage of the value indicated above, start from 3.05% equal to an installment of 600 euros (which drops to 577 euros in the case of green subrogation).
However, the offer of variable rates is still off the market: the best rates start from 4.58% and an installment of around 700 euros.
