The installment will ease again this month. The contracts that are now reviewed will register drops of up to 32 euros in the monthly fee, according to simulations carried out by ECO. This occurred after the European Central Bank (ECB) lowered its rates earlier this month.

The relief on mortgage payments is associated with the reduction in Euribor. These rates are calculated on a daily basis by a group of Eurozone banks and follow the expected trajectory of the European Central Bank's (ECB) reference interest rates.

Earlier this month, the central bank ushered in a new phase of the region's monetary policy by cutting its rates by 25 basis points for the first time after skyrocketing by 450 basis points over the past two years. There is an expectation that interest rates will be lowered twice this year, as already predicted by the governor of the Central Bank of Finland, Olli Rehn.

In this context, although there is still a high degree of uncertainty, Euribor rates are expected to continue their downward trend in the coming months, after reaching decade-and-a-half highs last year, which will translate into a reduction in the mortgage payment in variable rate contracts — which in Portugal represent around 90% of the market.

The impact of the evolution of Euribor on the value of the house installment will be greater or lesser depending on the value of the capital that is still outstanding. Families owed the bank an average of 65,924 euros on their home loan.