European Central Bank · EUR · Pass-through 85% over 4 months
The Eurozone composite uses a weighted basket of large member-country mortgage markets, not a German-only proxy.
| Country | Typical Fixed Product | Basket Weight | Mortgage Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 10-Year Festzinsbindung 10-year tenor | 28% | 3.65% |
| France | 20-25-Year taux fixe 25-year tenor | 22% | 3.45% |
| Italy | 20-30-Year mutuo a tasso fisso 25-year tenor | 18% | 3.75% |
| Spain | 15-30-Year hipoteca tipo fijo 25-year tenor | 14% | 3.35% |
| Portugal | Mixed / fixed-period mortgage 10-year tenor | 3% | 3.55% |
| Netherlands | 10-30-Year fixed 20-year tenor | 7% | 3.85% |
| Belgium | 20-Year fixed 20-year tenor | 4% | 3.70% |
| Austria | 10-15-Year fixed 15-year tenor | 4% | 3.60% |
Average historical spread mortgage − policy rate: 1.30pp. Current spread: 1.34pp. Above the long-run average — banks are charging a wider risk premium than usual.
Where the typical fixed mortgage rate ends up if the futures-implied policy path holds and the historical spread reverts to its long-run mean.
The four tiles at the top show the live policy rate (set by the central bank), the interbank rate, and the typical fixed and variable mortgage rates available to a household in this country. The gap between the policy rate and the mortgage rate is the spread — what the lender adds on top to cover funding, credit risk and profit.
The first chart shows that spread over the last five years. When the shaded area widens, banks are charging more on top of the policy rate, usually because the long bond market has moved or because banks are pricing in extra risk. When it narrows, competition or central bank bond-buying is squeezing margins. The second chart — the implied 12-month forward path — takes the current futures market's bet on where the policy rate is heading, applies the historical spread, and shows where your mortgage rate would land if both relationships hold. It is not a forecast: it is what current market pricing already implies.
The mortgage-minus-policy spread decomposes into four primary drivers. First, the funding curve: jurisdictions whose lenders fund predominantly via covered bonds (Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden) inherit the swap-plus-covered-spread basis, which moved from 5-15 bp pre-2022 to 25-50 bp during the ECB's APP/PEPP unwind. Lenders funded via deposit franchise (UK, Australia) anchor more to short-rate transmission and deposit beta. US lenders sell loans into agency MBS pools, so the spread is sensitive to the primary-secondary MBS basis and to Fed SOMA reinvestment policy.
Second, prepayment optionality and convexity: products without economic prepayment penalty (US 30Y, Danish callable bonds) trade at OAS rather than nominal spread; OAS widening during rate volatility regimes (VIX-Treasury MOVE comovement) bleeds straight into the borrower rate. Penalty-protected European products (German Festzins under §489 BGB, French indemnité de remboursement anticipé) carry minimal optionality premium. Third, lender duration mismatch: if the dominant local product is short-fixed (UK 2/5Y) the lender's asset-liability gap is small and the spread is stable; if long-fixed (US 30Y, German 10Y) lenders rely on swap and MBS markets to hedge duration, and spread widens when those hedge markets stress. Fourth, regulatory caps and capital treatment: France's taux d'usure, prudential LTV/DTI floors (Switzerland, Australia, Canada), and Basel III risk-weight differentiation across LTV buckets all alter the marginal cost of lending and feed back into quoted rates with lags of one to three quarters.
| Month | Implied Policy Rate | Projected Eurozone Weighted Fixed Benchmark | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07 | 2.29% | 3.59% | +1.30pp |
| 2026-08 | 2.29% | 3.59% | +1.30pp |
| 2026-09 | 2.50% | 3.63% | +1.14pp |
| 2026-10 | 2.50% | 3.67% | +1.17pp |
| 2026-11 | 2.53% | 3.70% | +1.17pp |
| 2026-12 | 2.59% | 3.74% | +1.15pp |
| 2027-01 | 2.59% | 3.77% | +1.18pp |
| 2027-02 | 2.71% | 3.82% | +1.12pp |
| 2027-03 | 2.73% | 3.87% | +1.14pp |
| 2027-04 | 2.73% | 3.90% | +1.17pp |
| 2027-05 | 2.73% | 3.93% | +1.20pp |
| 2027-06 | 2.75% | 3.96% | +1.21pp |
O Banco Central Europeu define três taxas de política; a taxa de depósito (deposit facility rate) é a taxa operacionalmente vinculante desde a introdução das reservas excedentes em 2008. A taxa de depósito ancora a €STR (Euro Short-Term Rate), que fica a poucos pontos-base da taxa de depósito e serve como referência para praticamente todo o financiamento interbancário.
A transmissão às taxas hipotecárias é mais rápida e mais completa do que nos Estados Unidos. Três razões estruturais:
A Zona do Euro não é um mercado único. A hipoteca “típica” difere marcadamente entre os países-membros:
O retrato usa uma cesta ponderada de Alemanha, França, Itália, Espanha, Portugal, Países Baixos, Bélgica e Áustria. A Alemanha é incluída por ser um mercado grande, mas não é tratada como proxy para toda a União Europeia ou a Zona do Euro.
A Zona do Euro apresenta a transmissão mais nítida entre as grandes economias. O spread entre a cesta ponderada de hipotecas dos países-membros e a taxa de depósito do BCE teve média de aproximadamente 1,3 ponto percentual desde 2015, com dois desvios notáveis:
Em meados de 2026, o spread se normalizou. O gráfico acima mostra a trajetória completa.
A trajetória projetada usa os futuros de Euribor de 3 meses e as curvas €STR-OIS para inferir a taxa de depósito do BCE ao longo do próximo ano, projetando em seguida a cesta ponderada de hipotecas dos países-membros ao somar o spread histórico. Como a transmissão na Zona do Euro é alta (~85% em 4 meses), a taxa hipotecária projetada acompanha de perto a taxa de política implícita.
Para uma análise mais aprofundada do BCE, veja a página do Banco Central Europeu e o Monitor da Curva de Juros para o contexto da curva soberana da Zona do Euro.