Interest rates for mortgages decreased 0.6 per cent

Good news for people who want to buy a house in Belgium and need a mortgage to do so. For several weeks, the interest rates are on a downward trend. They are now about 0.6 per cent lower than this summer. They won't go much lower soon, experts say.

The higher inflation since the start of the war in Ukraine was the cause of higher interest rates. The inflation is now decreasing faster than expected and therefor central banks can soon start to decrease their rates. It's exactly this expectation that is affecting the mortgages, writes De Standaard.

The decrease is now 0.6 per cent and could go to 0.7-0.8 per cent, but that will be it, says chief economist of bank ING Peter Vanden Houte. Central banks will not lower their interest rates that much, because of continued economic uncertainty. A mortgage at 3.3 per cent is the rate for now, rates at 1.5 per cent as was the case in recent years, is not in the making for the coming months or years.

^{©BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK}