Euribor back above 3%: what a Spanish mortgage costs a non-resident in October 2026

The twelve-month Euribor averaged 3.243% in September 2026, its highest level since July 2024, and the daily rate opened October at 3.303%. A year earlier it was 2.172%. For anyone taking a variable mortgage in Spain that is a direct increase in the monthly payment, and for anyone deciding between a fixed and a variable rate it changes the answer. This page explains what the Euribor is, why it has risen, what Spanish banks are actually charging on new mortgages, and what the figures mean for a buyer who lives outside Spain. The calculator above starts from the Banco de España’s latest average rate for new home loans, and you can change it to the rate your bank quotes. The conditions a non-resident is offered, the deposit required and the documents the bank asks for are in mortgages in Spain for non-residents.

What the Euribor is

The Euribor is the average interest rate at which large banks in the euro area lend to one another. It is published daily for several periods, and the twelve-month figure is the one that matters for housing, because it is the reference rate written into almost every Spanish variable mortgage. The bank adds its own margin to it, usually between about 0.6 and 1.5 percentage points, and the result is the rate you pay. Once a year, or in some contracts every six months, the bank looks up the latest monthly average and resets the payment.

A fixed-rate mortgage does not reference the Euribor at all once it is signed. The rate is agreed at the start and stays the same for the whole term. The Euribor still matters to a fixed-rate borrower in one way: banks price their fixed offers with an eye on where the Euribor is heading, so a rising Euribor tends to pull fixed offers up as well.

Where it stands in October 2026

The monthly average for September 2026 was 3.243%, compared with 2.952% in August and 2.172% in September 2025 (Infobae, 30 September 2026). September was the third monthly rise in a row and the first monthly average above 3% since August 2024. On 4 October the daily rate stood at 3.303% (Idealista, Euribor this month).

The cause is the European Central Bank. It raised its interest rates in June 2026 and again on 10 September 2026, each time by a quarter of a point, in response to higher inflation and the rise in energy prices that followed events in the Middle East. Its deposit rate, the rate it pays banks on money left with it overnight, now stands at 2.50%. The Euribor moves ahead of the central bank rather than behind it, which is why it climbed through the summer as those increases became expected. The next central bank meeting is on 29 October 2026, and a further rise is being discussed openly. One forecast quoted by Infobae expects the Euribor to be around 3.4% by the end of the year if inflation keeps surprising on the high side. Forecasts are only forecasts, and the only safe statement is that nobody in October 2026 is expecting the Euribor to fall back below 3% soon.

What new mortgages actually cost

The national statistics office publishes the terms of every mortgage registered in Spain. For July 2026, the latest month available, the average interest rate on a home mortgage was 3.01%, the first month above 3% in seventeen months (INE, mortgage statistics for July 2026). Fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.03% and variable-rate mortgages started at 2.97%. The average term was 26 years and the average loan was 180,785 euros, 10.9% more than a year earlier, which reflects rising prices rather than looser lending. The number of new home mortgages fell 3.5% in a year.

The figure to notice is the split. Just over 62% of new borrowers chose a fixed rate. That is a rational response to the numbers: a fixed rate at about 3% is below what a variable rate would cost once a margin of 1% is added to a Euribor of 3.24%, and it cannot rise.

Fixed or variable in October 2026

A year ago the case for a variable rate was arguable. The Euribor was at 2.17%, a variable rate with a 1% margin cost about 3.2%, and fixed rates were similar, so a borrower who expected the Euribor to fall could reasonably choose variable. That case has gone for now. A variable mortgage with the same margin costs about 4.2% at the September Euribor, against a fixed rate of about 3%, and the direction of travel is upwards.

For a buyer living outside Spain there is a second reason to fix. A variable payment that moves with the Euribor also moves against your own currency if you earn in pounds, dollars, kroner or dirhams, so you carry two uncertainties at once. A fixed rate removes one of them. The exchange-rate question is dealt with in getting your money to Spain.

A mixed mortgage, fixed for the first ten or fifteen years and variable after that, is also offered by most Spanish banks and is worth asking about. It gives a fixed payment through the years when the balance is largest.

A worked example

Take a 400,000 euro resale apartment on the Costa del Sol bought by a non-resident. Spanish banks generally lend a non-resident 60% to 70% of the lower of the price and their own valuation, so assume a 280,000 euro loan over 25 years. The figures below are the monthly repayment and are rounded.

The rise in the Euribor over the year adds about 162 euros a month, or roughly 1,950 euros a year, to the variable mortgage. The fixed mortgage costs less than either variable figure and will cost the same in 2036. On top of the loan the buyer needs the remaining 120,000 euros of the price and the taxes and fees on the purchase, which come to about 10% to 11% of the price on a resale in Andalucía and are set out in what a Costa del Sol purchase really costs. If the payment sets the budget, the new builds under €300,000 show what that budget buys on the coast in October 2026.

Should you wait for rates to fall

Waiting only helps if the rate falls by more than prices rise in the meantime. Over the past year the Euribor rose by just over one percentage point while asking prices in Málaga province rose 6.6% and registered sale prices across Spain rose 9.2%. On the 400,000 euro example, a year’s price rise at the Málaga rate is about 26,000 euros, far more than any plausible saving on the rate. A buyer who fixes at about 3% today has also removed the risk of the Euribor rising further, which is the direction the central bank is currently moving. The wider market figures, including the fall in sales, are in Costa del Sol prices up, sales down.

The one case where waiting clearly makes sense is if the deposit is not yet in place. A non-resident needs 30% to 40% of the price from their own funds plus the costs, and no bank will lend around that.

How I handle it

My approach is the same at every price point: proper research on the property and its area, a straight assessment of what it is genuinely worth, and careful negotiation on your behalf. Where a mortgage is involved that means getting the bank’s agreement in principle before the search starts, so that an offer can be made with confidence, and timing the deposit contract so that the bank’s binding offer and valuation arrive before any money is at risk. If you are weighing up borrowing in Spain against paying in cash, that conversation is part of the buying service, and you can book a call to talk it through.

Figures checked on 4 October 2026 against the sources linked above. The Euribor is published daily and the central bank meets again on 29 October 2026, so treat this page as a dated reading of the position.

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