The interest rate usually that is usually used to calculate Spanish mortgage payments, Euribor, has fallen for the third consecutive month to 2.044% in November 2011.

The fall in the past month can be attributed to Mario Draghi, the new Governor of the European Central Bank (ECB) cutting base rates by a quarter of a point to 1.25% just a few days after taking over at the beginning of November.

The fall in Euribor will not be much immediate comfort for those with an annually resetting mortgage as it is now some 33% higher than it was 12 months ago, meaning repayments on the average mortgage will rise by 400 Euros per year.

According to the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE) new mortgage lending fell 42% to just 30,808 in September year-on-year with the average value down to €111,934.