Updated
Updated · Euronews · Jun 18
ECB Shows Latvia Mortgage Rates Hit 4.18% as Malta Stays at 2.08%
Updated
Updated · Euronews · Jun 18

ECB Shows Latvia Mortgage Rates Hit 4.18% as Malta Stays at 2.08%

2 articles · Updated · Euronews · Jun 18

Summary

  • ECB data for April 2026 showed new eurozone mortgage rates ranging from 2.08% in Malta to 4.18% in Latvia, with the bloc average at 3.43%.
  • A €200,000 mortgage over 20 years costs about €1,019 a month in Malta versus €1,231 in Latvia, leaving the Latvian borrower paying roughly €50,800 more in total interest.
  • Variable-rate lending helps explain the gap: such loans make up more than 93% of new mortgages in Latvia, Estonia and Finland, compared with 15% across the eurozone.
  • Bank competition and funding structures also differ by country, with smaller, more concentrated banking markets such as the Baltics tending to carry wider lending margins.
  • The spread underscores how a single ECB policy rate still passes unevenly through national banking systems, leaving homebuyers in the same currency union facing sharply different borrowing costs.

Insights

Why can’t a Latvian get a cheap Maltese mortgage in the EU's single market?
Does unifying Europe's mortgage market risk a new, continent-wide housing crisis?