By Andrea Hargraves 
At a time when inflation and constant increases in interest rates by central banks drove up the Euribor, contracting or maintaining a mortgage was a challenge for the Portuguese. However, there are already banks with lower offers.
In the current context of rising interest rates, banks have launched new campaigns offering spreads starting from 0.75%. It is important for families to know what they can count on, and to take advantage of the competitive environment to reduce the impact of higher interest rates on their budget, ”explains Claudio Santos, Commercial Director (CCO) at Doutor Financeira.
Thus, the specialist warns families who have housing credits to find out about the possibility of reducing the banking entities with which they contracted, due to the presence of banks with lower offers.
However, he asserts that these conditions do not apply to all contracts, “being conditioned on meeting certain limits related to the permanent value of the loan (loan-to-value), rate of effort and duration of financing, as well as contracting related products, as is the case with insurance.”
However, Claudio Santos says it is appropriate to know the financing conditions and try to find solutions that reduce the financial burden.
The specialist primarily focuses on cases of credits that have been contracted for many years. Ten years ago, for example, the average spread applied to new variable rate mortgages was close to 3%. At that time, Euribor prices were already at historically low levels and banks were restricting the amount of credit allocated.”
After that, the average spread was reduced, so it may be worth converting the mortgage loan, in order to take advantage of better conditions, which will allow mitigating the impact of higher interest rates on the monthly installment, as they explain.