Market News
Euro Region Mortgage Lending Rebounds as ECB Starts to Cut Rates - BLOOMBERG
(Bloomberg) -- Mortgage lending by Europe’s banks continued a rebound in July as falling interest rates support home buying.
Euro area banks handed out €71 billion ($78.5 billion) in loans for house purchases by consumers in July, the highest level since August 2022, the latest data from the European Central Bank showed.
The rebound is good news for Europe’s banks, many of which make large chunks of their profit from the business. Lenders from Deutsche Bank AG to ING Groep NV have said they see a recovery in the market as central banks start to loosen monetary policy. The tailwind may pick up, with the ECB set to cut rates for a second time this year.
“I think we found a floor and can grow from here” in German mortgages, Deutsche Bank AG Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke said during the second-quarter earnings call in July.
The sentiment was echoed by ING Groep NV on another earnings call, with CFO Tanate Phutrakul saying the bank had “been able to grow our mortgage book in all of our retail countries,” thanks to a “recovery of the market.”
Home purchases have helped reverse a slump in real estate values. German homes prices rose for the first time in about two years in the second quarter.
