Mortgage applications skyrocketed in December

The number of mortgage applications was significantly higher last month than it usually is in December. This was shown in the data from Hypotheken Data Netwerk (HDN) on Monday. In the last month of 2020, 40,458 mortgages were taken out, well above the average of the December months in the previous four years, which was 30,015. 

It comes as no surprise that more mortgages were applied for last December, says HDN director Reinier van der Heijden. Normally, fewer mortgage applications are submitted in December due to the holidays, but “because Christmas was partly on the weekend this year, we already expected that the number would turn out higher than last year. But this final score is still very high,” says van der Heijden. 

Despite the coronavirus crisis, the housing market remained in full swing in 2020. For example, there were 15 percent more applications for mortgages in the third quarter compared to the same time last year. In the first half of 2020, the number was even 40 percent higher than in the first half of 2019.