Colombia. In the midst of the global recession, the rise of the dollar, the devaluation of the peso and the increase in interest rates of the Bank of the Republic, housing prices in Colombia show only a small, normal variation of market movement.
Within the framework of this situation, and based on the apparent stability in prices, Habi, a company specialized in buying and selling used housing in the country, carried out an analysis to understand the dynamism of the used housing segment taking into account the global and national economic situation that has been experienced since recent months.
As for prices, during the period from August to October of this year compared to 2021, an average reduction of 0.6% in housing prices is observed, so the dynamism of the sector should not be affected by a price issue, since they are normal changes.
On the other hand, within the analysis, the company was able to identify a decrease in the amount of mortgage loans granted in recent months. "Since August 2022, there has been a reduction of 9% on average, which may be directly related to the increase in interest rates of Banco de la República and private financial institutions," said Juan Sokoloff, vice president of data and analytics at Habi.
Banco de la República's interest rates have risen by about 7 percentage points from January to the end of October, and, as a result of these hikes, commercial banks have also increased their rates by about 5 percentage points. The consequence of these is that fewer people decide to apply for a loan since high interest rates will influence the final value that ends up being paid is higher than at other times.
According to the company's analysis, it is still early to talk about a slowdown in the housing market, but it is possible to foresee that sales times will begin to increase given that fewer people are requesting loans to finance the purchase of housing.
