It is a procedure, at first glance, unusual and surprising. However, it is much more common than it seems as the data shows. The acquisition of a home in cash, that is, without the need for a mortgage, is a reality that accompanies one in three real estate operations in the province of Burgos. If the National Institute of Statistics recorded 4,906 sales of flats or houses over the past year, this body notified the opening of 3,191 loans for the payment of a home. Both data, extracted from official channels, leave 1,715 transactions closed ‘to tocateja’. This 35% that they suppose is the highest percentage in the last decade.
You have to go back to 2013 to find such high figures: at that time, 38% of all operations were signed without a loan in between. Of the 2,581 sales, 990 ended without a mortgage through. But, what is the reason for this increase in the number of people from Burgos who buy a house and pay for it immediately? From the Financial Users Association they focus on the provincial real estate market, on the refuge value that housing represents and on the unstoppable rise of the Euribor.
Starting with the reference index for the majority of subscribed mortgages, the escalation that it has suffered for a year has caused many citizens to choose to inject all their savings instead of signing a loan. “It is very different to subscribe to it at 0.5% interest, which is practically free money, than having to pay a higher surcharge and that may increase in the future,” explains Antonio Luis Gallardo, head of Studies at Asufin.
One in three homes is bought ‘to tocateja’ in full rise of the Euribor.
(More information in today’s printed edition of Diario de Burgos)