Mortgage lending in 2009 in Spain

Second highest fall in mortgage lending in 2009

According to figures released by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics the number of mortgages taken out for the purpose of buying a home fell for the third consecutive year in 2009. Mortgage lending for this sector of the property market fell by 21.9% in 2009 which is the second highest fall on record. The actual number of mortgages taken out for buying a home last year was 653,173.

However although the fall in mortgage lending last year was the highest on record after the falls registered in 2008 the amount by which it fell was moderated during the final months of the year. In fact mortgage lending for this sector of the property market rose slightly in November, the first rise in two and a half years, and fell by just 1.3% in December.

The amount of an average mortgage also fell by 15.7% last year to 117,688 euros.

Spanish housing market statistics 2009

House sales in Spain fell by 25% in 2009

According to figures published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) house sales fell by 24.9% in 2009 compared to 2008. Figures released by the INE show that there were a total of 414,811 house sales in 2009 – 53.2% for new housing and 46.8% for used housing.

In 2009, 220,663 new houses were sold – a fall of 20.6% compared to 194,178 for used houses which is a fall of 29.1%.

Out of the total number of sales 89.7% were for private housing although sales in this sector of the housing market also fell by 26% to 372,192 transactions while a total of 42,619 sales for government subsidised housing (VPO) were registered which is a fall of 13.6%.

The fall in house sales in 2009 was less than in 2008 when sales fell by 28.6% partly due to the fact that house sales picked up during the last few months of last year.

In December 2009, house sales fell by 0.3% compared to the same period in 2008 which is the smallest fall since records began. In fact since records began house sales have fallen by less than 10% only four times - April 2008 (-7.1%), August 2009 (-9.9%), November 2009 (-2.6%) and in December 2009 (- 0.3%). Normally house sales have fallen above 20% with the maximum fall in sales registered in April 2009 (- 47.6%).

House sales fell by 7.7% in December compared to November 2009 which is in sharp contrast with the increase of 5% in sales registered in November.

In 2009, the highest number of house sales per 100,000 inhabitants was registered in La Rioja (1,840), Cantabria (1,653) and Murcia (1,580).

Out of all the house sales registered in 2009 57.3% were in Andalucía (86,916), the Valencian region (54,062), Madrid (51,302) and Catalonia (45,545).

Santander Bank announces record profits in 2009

The Santander Group made 0.7% in 2009 despite recession

According to information released to the National Stock Market Commission (CNMV) the Santander Group made a net profit of 8,943 million euros in 2009 which is 0.7% more than in 2008 when it made 8,876 million euros.

These results mean that the bank fulfilled its promise to shareholders with regards to its profits and the money destined for dividends which has gone up by 2% compared to 2008 and now stands at 4,919 million euros.

According to the Chairman of the Santander Group, Emilio Botín, these are ‘the best results in the history of the bank taking into account the difficulties of the current economic climate placing the bank at the top of the league for the second year in a row’.

The rate of defaulting on loans was calculated to be 3.24% at the end of 2009 compared to a rate of 2.04% at the end of 2008. At the end of 2009 the Santander Group had conceded 682,551 million euros in loans which is 8.9% more than in 2008. The banking group also managed 900,057 million euros for its clients which also represents an increase of 8.9%.

Profits in Latin America were 3,833 million euros (+6%) at the end of 2009. Profits for the United Kingdom grew by 38% to 1,726 million euros with an increase of 5% in credits and 8% in deposits in pounds.

The net margin obtained by the banking group from all of its businesses centred in a dozen markets around the world was 22,960 million euros - 19.3% more than in 2008.

The Santander Group closed 2009 with 79,704 million euros in capital, 34,769 million euros more than the minimum required by regulations which meant that at the end of 2009 the banking group had a core capital and reserves of 8.6% compared to 7.5% for 2008.

These figures make the Santander Bank, one of the few banks not to have received any public aid in any of the markets where it operates, one of the most solvent world banks.

Finally the payment of 0.22 euros per share on 1st May 2010 was approved by the Board of Directors which means that the total dividend is 0.60 euros per share. This is 7.8% less than in 2008 following the increase in its capital by increasing the number of shareholders by 32%. The total quantity which is to be paid out in dividends by the banking group has gone up by 2%.