More homes are being bought, but mortgage loans are decreasing

Only about one in 12 homes are bought using mortgage loans. In 2023, there were 174,475 property transactions, up 21.1% on 2022, and just 14,621 loans granted to buy or build a house.

Furthermore, the four big banks' (Alpha, Eurobank, National and Piraeus) loan portfolios are shrinking: In the second quarter of the year, the four banks' portfolios were worth €25.5 billion, down 0.7% on the first quarter (€25.7 billion) and 7.9% on the second quarter of 2023 (€27.7 billion).

Payments of outstanding loans were higher than new loan disbursements across all four banks.