Mortgage credit in 2024: a positive year after a year of pause
30 January 2025 - 11 min Reading time
The year 2024 shows another positive trend, with 3 consecutive quarters in which mortgage loans increased. The fall in interest rates proved to be a positive sign for consumers.
The number of credit applications in 2024, excluding refinances, saw an increase of about 10% compared to 2023. This increase was more pronounced in amount, with +15% compared to 2023. Credit applications for ‘new construction’ experienced a decrease of more than 2% in number, but increased by more than 9% in amount. On the other hand, the number of credit applications for ‘Purchase + renovation’ stabilised, compared to 2023, by 0.6% and by +16.5% in amount.
In 2024, more than 186,000 loans, excluding refinances, were granted for a total of more than €31 billion. This is an increase of more than 4% compared to 2023.
This is shown by the mortgage credit statistics published today by the Professional Association of Credit (UPC-BVK).*
*The 45 members of the UPC-BVK together account for about 90% of the total number of new mortgage credits granted (called production). The total outstanding amount of mortgage credit of UPC-BVK members at the end of December 2024 is about EUR 286 billion.
2 semesters - 2 trends
The first half of 2024 showed a mixed picture, with the first quarter being still negative. This is due to the fact that mortgage applications only started to rise again at the very end of 2023.
The second half of the year showed a positive trend as a result of the drop in interest rates that began in early 2024. Excluding refinancings, there was an increase of about 11.4% in the second half of the year compared to the same period in 2023. In the first half of 2024, there was a decrease of 3.1% compared to 2023.
Repayment capacity was positively influenced by the drop in interest rates in 2024, resulting in a production of nearly 17.2 billion euros and 99,500 mortgage credits in the second half of 2024.
Interest rates have thus played an important role in the evolution of the past year. According to figures published by the National Bank of Belgium, interest rates in November 2024 ranged between 2.97% (for loans with a variable interest rate and an initial fixed-rate period of more than 10 years) and 4.74% (for loans with an initial fixed-rate period of up to 1 year).
"The drop in interest rates that began in early 2024 has enabled potential borrowers to strengthen their repayment capacity and stimulate mortgage lending after a year of pause," said Ivo Van Bulck, Secretary-General of the Professional Association of Credit.
Below are the main findings for the entire year 2024, with a special focus on the fourth quarter.
With regards to the entire year 2024:
- The number of credit applications (excluding refinancings) increased by 10% compared to 2023. The amount of credit applications was also about 15% higher than in 2023. Thus, 294,000 credit applications were submitted for a total amount of more than 55.6 billion euros.
- In 2024, a total of just over 186,000 mortgage credits (excluding refinancings) were granted for a total amount of more than 31 billion euros. The number of granted mortgage credits increased by more than 3% compared to 2023. The corresponding amount also increased by just over 4.4% compared to 2023.
- The number of granted credits generally showed an upward trend in 2024 depending on the purpose, both for the number of credits granted for the purchase of a home (+405, or +0.4%) and for the number of credits for purchase with renovation (+1,057, or +10.4%), for the number of credits for the renovation of a home (+5,569, or +16.2%) and the number of credits for other purposes (+1,280, or +15.9%), with the exception of construction credits (-2,792, or -13.7%).
- The number of external refinancings (+564, or +8.1%) also increased in 2024 compared to the previous year. In 2024, just under 9,400 external refinancings were granted for a total amount of just over 1 billion euros.
A comparison of the fourth quarter of 2024 with the fourth quarter of the previous year shows the following results:
- It can be observed that in the fourth quarter of 2024, approximately 79,000 credit applications were submitted for a total of just over 15.5 billion euros, which represents an increase of about 21.5% in number and an increase of just under 33% in amount, compared to the last quarter of 2023.
- Compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, the number of granted mortgage credits in the fourth quarter of 2024 increased overall (+5.7%). Compared to the record quarter Q4 2019 (due to the abolition of the housing bonus in Flanders), we see a decrease of -52%.
- The amount of credit granted in the fourth quarter of 2024 was approximately 9.4% higher than in the fourth quarter of the previous year.
- A total of just over 52,000 credits were granted for an amount of 8.9 billion euros (excluding refinancings).
- The number of external refinancings increased during the fourth quarter of 2024. During this quarter, just under 2,500 external refinancings were granted for an amount of just over 367 million euros.
- The average amount of credits for purchase + renovation increased in the fourth quarter to 213,000 euros. The average borrowed amount for the purchase of a home increased in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 198,500 euros. The average amount for a construction credit increased in the fourth quarter of 2024 to approximately 237,600 euros.
- In the fourth quarter of 2024, more than 9 out of 10 borrowers (94.7%) chose a fixed interest rate or a variable interest rate with an initial fixed-rate period of at least 10 years. In only 1.3% of cases, a loan with an annually variable interest rate was chosen.
I. Number of credit applications in the fourth quarter
The number of credit applications, excluding those related to external refinancing, increased by about 21.5% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The underlying amount of credit applications increased by nearly 33% in the last quarter of 2024.
The number of credit applications for the purchase of a home (+7,878) increased by +19.4%, those for the renovation of a home (+2,246) by +20.5%, those for the construction of a home (+1,119) by 18.4% and those for other purposes such as a garage, building land... (+2,284) by +83%. The number of applications for external refinancing increased by 23% in the last quarter of 2024. The same goes for the number of credit applications for the purchase + renovation of a house (+9.2%).
II. Number of granted credits in the fourth quarter
Compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, mortgage loans granted in the fourth quarter of 2024 showed another positive trend, by +5.7% in number and almost +9.5% in amount.
We still observe a drop in number of credits granted compared to 2020 (-30.2%). Compared to the record Q4 2019 (due to the abolition of the housing bonus in Flanders), it is even -52%.
The amount of credit granted in Q4 2024 was 9.4% higher than in Q4 the previous year. Compared to 2020 (-21%) and the exceptional fourth quarter of 2019 (-39.4%), a stronger decrease was recorded.
III. Evolution of the number of credits by destination
52,000 new loans were granted in the fourth quarter of 2024 for a total amount of about EUR 8.9 billion - excluding external refinancing.
Compared to 2023, as mentioned above, this is an increase of about 5.8% in number of contracts and just under 9.5% in corresponding amount. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, this shows an even increase: the number of credits for purchase with remodelling (+512) saw an increase of about 16.5%. The number of loans for other purposes (+832, or +39%), the number of renovation credits (+1,818, or +20.6%) and the number of construction loans (+297, or +5.7%) also saw an increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. In contrast, the number of home purchase credits (-641) decreased by 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the same quarter of 2023.
In addition, the number of external refinances increased again in the fourth quarter of 2024 (+45.2%). Just under 2,500 external refinancings were granted for a total amount of just under EUR 370 million.
IV. Increase in average amounts
The average amount of a credit for building a home rose to about EUR 238,000 at the end of 2024. This represents an increase of about EUR 62,000 compared to the end of 2019, but an increase of about EUR 30,000 (+20.2%) compared to the end of 2020.
The average amount of a credit for the purchase of a home increased to almost EUR 198,500 during 2024. Again, this is an increase of almost EUR 33,000 (+20.3%) over a 5-year period.
The average amount of renovation credits experienced an increase compared to one year before: from around EUR 61,000 at the end of 2023 to just over EUR 66,000 at the end of 2024. This average amount also saw an increase of just under EUR 14,000 (+26.9%) in 5 years.
The average amount of a credit for the purchase of a home + remodelling also saw a significant increase in 2024 to about EUR 213,000, or about EUR 13,000 more in 5 years.
V. More than 97% of borrowers choose fixed interest rate
In the fourth quarter of 2024, once again more than 9 out of 10 borrowers (94.7%) opted for a fixed rate or a variable rate with an initial period of interest rate fixation of at least 10 years. About 5% of the borrowers opted for a variable rate with an initial period of interest rate fixation between 3 and 10 years. The number of borrowers opting for an annually variable interest rate was limited to 1.3%.
Given the higher interest rates, Belgian consumers thus continue to opt predominantly for security. The number of people still opting for a variable interest rate remains low, especially as regards the annually variable interest rate. But even in case of a variable interest rate, consumers are highly protected by legislation. As such, the variable interest adapted to the evolution of the applicable reference indices can never exceed twice the initial interest rate.
Responsible mortgage lending remains the starting point
The credit sector is and remains aware that mortgage lending must be done with great care and that responsible lending must remain the absolute starting point. In that respect, the industry agrees with the regulator: lenders must continue to pay particular attention to the repayment capacity in order to avoid, as much as possible, individual borrowers taking out loans that are too large, on the one hand, and to safeguard financial stability in the long term, on the other.
The complete statistics on mortgage credit (2000 - 2024) broken down by the destination of the credit and by type of interest rate are available on the UPC-BVK website (www.upc-bvk.be) under the heading "Press & figures".
