New data from the Banking Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) has found that mortgage approvals for house purchase equalled €488m in December, up 39% on the year. In volume terms, approvals for house purchases were 2,255, up 28% on the year.
The data shows another sharp rise in the average approval for first-time buyers to €201,928, up 14% on the year. This follows the loosening of Central Bank’s mortgage lending rules in November, so borrowers can now take out higher levels of mortgage debt.
The last time Irish first-time buyers borrowed more than €200,000 on average was in 2009. Mover-purchasers are also starting to take out higher levels of mortgage debt. The average loan to mover-purchasers rose to €248,486 up 4.4% on the year.
According to Davy Stockbrokers, "Today’s figures suggest that we are well on track to exceed our forecast for mortgage lending to grow by 20% from €5bn in 2016 to €6bn in 2017."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
