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However, in the short term, rises are unlikely, especially after the final cut made at the end of April which, as the Bank of Spain pointed out, signified a new historic low for the Euribor, the official reference for the mortgage lenders, of 2.253%. Over the past year interest rates have been cut by 1.711 points.

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The Eur�bor already reached an all-time low in February when it was set at 2.411%. Two months later, however, it was cut by a further decimal point to reach an extraordinarily low rate, which leaves little room for further cuts. This means that the titleholder of a mortgage of 120,200 euros over 20 years who revised the rate of his mortgage with a reduction similar to that of the Eur�bor would benefit from a monthly saving of 84.86 euros or 1,018 euros a year. In the same manner, the monthly bill for a mortgage of 90,151 euros over 20 years would be reduced 63.69 euros, equivalent to a saving of 765.48 euros a year under the new rate.

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As for eur�bor-linked mortgages, the new cut announced by the Bank of Spain represents a monthly saving of 6.90 euros per 10,000 euros for a 15-year mortgage. In the case of a 25-year mortgage, the average saving would be 7.5 euros per 10,000 euros.

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The mortgage revisions add on to the Euribor a percentage that ranges from 0.45 (Barclays); to 0.49 (Deutsche Bank); to 0.85 (Banco Atl�ntico); to 1 (Banco Pastor, Banco Sabadell, Halifax, SCH and Bankinter); to 1.25 (Caja Madrid, La Caixa, Banco Popular and BBVA; and to 1.50 (Caja de Ahorros del Mediterr�neo). These revision are often part of the negotiations held between the banks or building societies in question and the mortgage applicant. The percentages can therefore be inferior to those quoted depending on certain conditions, such as processing the mortgage via the lenders' virtual branches.

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The European Banking Federation calculates the Euribor using the information supplied by the main euro institutions and reflects the average interest rate of euro operations going back a year.

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The good news not only affects the Euribor, but also the M�bor, a reference that sets the price index of the inter-bank market of Madrid, and which is currently reflecting the positive borrowing situation of the economy. The Mibor (backdated a year) dropped in last May to 2.252% against the top rate of 4% reached in May 2002. All the above suggests that both individuals and the companies interested in requesting a mortgage should take full advantage of the current situation to ask their lenders for a mortgage that us unlikely to get any cheaper.