Creating a more sustainable world is not necessarily cheaper. The market offers an increasingly broad catalog of financial products verdesbut its price, for now, is higher than the average for conventional products.
This is reflected in the latest report prepared by the Association of Financial Users Asufin, which points out, among other things, that the supply of mortgages for the purchase of sustainable housing has grown in the last year, but so has the average interest rate at which they are granted. According to their findings, customers can now find up to nine proposals for mortgages verdes, compared to the five proposals from a year ago. “We also found the first mortgage verde mixed ecological by Banco Santander”, points out the IV Green Finance Study of the organization that has been able to verify Economic News. However, the increase in supply has not translated into lower prices, quite the opposite. In a context of change in monetary policy by the European Central Bank (ECB), the average mortgage rate verdes It stands at 5.23% APR and is 1.48% more expensive than the average interest rate for new mortgage operations in the month of July, which reached 3.75%.
“The mortgages verdes Throughout these three years of monitoring by Asufin, they have been above market prices. Thus, we see that at this time, the fixed mortgage verde It is at 5.63% APR; The variable verdeat 4.63% APR, and the average of market mortgages, at 3.75%, that is, a 1.88% extra cost in the first case, and 0.88%, in the second.
But while financing a more energy-efficient home is more expensive, purchasing an environmentally friendly vehicle can be cheaper. The client can also find more financing offers on the market, and also cheaper ones. “In our mistery shopping “We have found 11 offers from 8 different entities, compared to 6 offers from 5 entities in 2022,” the study points out. “Its average, 7.30% APR, is below the 8.05% of personal loans in the month of July according to the latest data from the Bank of Spain,” he adds.
However, the financing does not manage to offset the price of this type of vehicle, which continues to cause rejection among consumers in the purchasing process. “The high price is consolidated as the main burden for the purchase of these products in which aid does not seem to be having an impact to lead to their purchase. The bank does act more actively in these products, with more loans and slightly more competitive interests than the average, but its impact on purchases, although it is increasing, does not seem relevant and should lead to a rethinking of other policies that launch their purchases,” the study states.