Unimaginable mortgage records ended 2021: December set a record of NIS 12.2 billion, while the entire year ended as an all-time record year in terms of mortgage volume, with NIS 116.1 billion taken out, according to a partial publication by the Bank of Israel about mortgage volumes taken last month.
Although 2021 has not yet been officially agreed, as the prices of apartments and the volume of transactions made in it have not yet been published (only next month will the CBS and the Ministry of Finance publish the summary data), but it is a record year of buying apartments and taking out mortgages. , This year will be recorded as one of the top three years in this field, since the beginning of the millennium.However, the peak volume of mortgages in December suggests that price increases at the end of the year picked up further momentum than it already was.
In terms of the volume of mortgages, last year over 50% more mortgages were taken than in 2020, when the previous record was set, which was NIS 78 million, and more than 70% than in 2019, which previously held the record and where NIS 67.7 billion was taken.
The past year has been accompanied by the exploitation of low interest rates, and the abolition of some of the prime limits by the Bank of Israel, which have allowed borrowers to take out higher and cheaper mortgages. This was also one of the reasons for the accelerated price increases recorded this year.
As mentioned, no data is yet available regarding the distribution of mortgages by sector, but it is likely that in December there was a change in the borrower mix, as in November a record was set of almost 2,000 investors who took out mortgages, to anticipate the increase in purchase tax. It is therefore likely that in December the young couples and housing developers took their place.