Anyone who wants to buy a house or an apartment currently has to pay more than twice as much for the mortgage as at the beginning of the previous year. And that’s just the beginning: In 2023, mortgage interest rates could rise even further.
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Not good news for home and apartment buyers: The mortgage index from moneyland.ch has risen sharply in the past year. The average reference interest rate is currently 2.54 percent for five-year and 2.76 percent for ten-year fixed-rate mortgages. “On average, a ten-year fixed-rate mortgage costs around twice as much as it did at the beginning of 2022,” says Benjamin Manz, CEO of moneyland.ch. The benchmark interest rates for five-year fixed-rate mortgages are currently even 2.5 times higher than at the beginning of 2022.
Mortgages are therefore still very expensive. However, the reference interest rates have not yet reached the high of October 2022: At that time, the mortgage interest index briefly climbed to 2.96 percent for five-year and 3.35 percent for ten-year fixed-rate mortgages.
More rate hikes
In order to counteract inflation, the Swiss National Bank SNB raised the key interest rate sharply last year, thereby fueling the rise in interest rates on mortgages. Most market participants now assume that the SNB will raise the key interest rate by a further 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points from the current 1 percent at the March 2023 meeting. A key interest rate of 1.5 percent is expected after the second meeting in June 2023 at the latest.
However, this interest rate hike does not necessarily have to drive the mortgage interest rate up further, because the increase to 1.5 percent by mid-year should already be priced into the mortgage interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages. The big question, however, is whether this will be enough to get inflation under control again.
Inflation in Switzerland has stabilized somewhat, but at 2.8 percent in December it is still well above the maximum 2 percent target set by the SNB. As long as this is the case, there will be no all-clear and a further tightening of monetary policy can be expected. “In 2023, I expect mortgage interest rates to remain high and more likely to rise,” says moneyland.ch analyst Felix Oeschger.
mortgage index from moneyland.ch
The moneyland.ch mortgage index is based on the benchmark interest rates published online that moneyland.ch automatically collects twice a day. For ten-year fixed-rate mortgages, the index is the daily average of interest rates from over 30 banks and insurance companies. In addition, reference interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages with longer maturities, variable-rate mortgages, construction loans and Saron mortgages are indexed. In addition to the recommended interest rates per provider and mortgage, different parameters such as the median, arithmetic mean, mode, minimum and maximum for various product groups such as online mortgages, mortgages from banks and mortgages from insurance companies are collected every day. Current mortgage interest rates can be viewed interactively on moneyland.ch. You can also find various mortgage calculators on moneyland.ch.
