Clients can request a fixation of their mortgage payment from November 2.

According to the decree-law published today, bank clients can request fixation of mortgage loan payments from November 2, and banks will not be able to charge a fee for accessing this mechanism.

Measures to reduce the cost of housing loans were published today in Diário da República: either extending the interest subsidy (in which the state pays part of the interest on housing loans under certain conditions) or fixing the provision of housing loans for two years at a price lower than the current one.

From November 2 until the end of March 2024, bank customers can request from their bank access to this facility, which applies to variable rate loans issued before March 15, 2023 and with a maturity of more than five years. September (when this measure was approved by the Council of Ministers).

Following a customer’s request, banks have 15 days to respond, including modeling a “regular” installment plan and an installment plan with a portion of the amount deferred, an amount to be paid later, and a repayment plan for the amount to be deferred. After receiving this information, customers have 30 days to tell the bank if they want the installment plan corrected.

Banks may not charge commissions or fees for fixing the provision, “nor may they condition its application on contracts for other products or services” by customers, the law explains.

Clients accessing this facility will pay a lower fee for two years, as this fee will be indexed to 70% of the six-month average Euribor amount of the month preceding the client’s request (ensuring that they will pay less in both years than if Euribor were reflected at 100%).

After these two years, in the next four years, the benefit takes on its “normal” value (with a full reflection of the index at that time). After these four years, families will pay off the outstanding amount, while in the remaining years they will benefit from loan reduction.

For loan agreements with a maturity of less than six years, the amount is paid during the last two years of the agreement. The deferred amount can be amortized in advance, without any commissions or charges. And access to this mechanism also does not prevent clients from repaying the loan early (in part or in full) without penalties.

The Decree-Law also states that “the amount of capital outstanding on the date of termination of the reserve fixing measure may not, as a result of the application of this chapter, be greater than the amount of capital outstanding on the date of commencement.” on the establishment of benefits.”

However, as consumer protection association Deco told Lusa in September, the total amount paid on the loan will be slightly increased for those who access the facility, as the outstanding amount will be paid later, then it will fall on them. the interest rate in effect at that time. Last Tuesday, the government presented the draft state budget for 2024, predicting that there will be between 800,000 and 900,000 home loan contracts that will be able to access the installment mechanism. This measure does not incur any costs for the state.

According to Banco de Portugal, at the end of 2022, banks had about 1.5 million housing loan agreements (variable rate, fixed rate or mixed rate) in their portfolio.

In July this year, according to Banco de Portugal, two million customers had mortgages. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in August the interest rate included in all home loan contracts was 4.1%, the highest since March 2009, and the average installment was 379 euros, an increase of 111 euros. than in August 2022.

The interest portion was 57% of the average contribution, compared to 19% in August 2022.