Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has today published the latest figures from the BPFI Mortgage Approvals Report for November 2021.
A total of 4,959 mortgages were approved in November 2021 – some 2,662 were for First Time Buyers (FTB) (53.7%) of total volume while mover purchasers accounted for 1,172 (23.6%). The number of mortgages approved in November rose by 8.6% month-on-month and fell by 4.6% year-on-year.
Mortgages approved in November 2021 were valued at €1,283 million – of which FTBs accounted for €690 million (53.8%) and €354 million by mover purchasers (27.6%). The value of mortgage approvals rose by 7.9% month-on-month and by 0.2% year-on-year.
Re-mortgage or mortgage switching activity rose by 20.8% and 25.8% in volume and value terms, respectively, when compared with November 2020. The volume of approved mortgage switches has more than doubled since November 2017 with 7,243 approvals valued at more than €1.8 billion in the twelve months ending November 2021.
According to Goodbody Stockbrokers, "Even though mortgage approvals relative to the housing stock have trebled in Ireland in the past decade, they are still at about two-thirds of UK levels. This can be explained by a combination of tighter lending conditions and a relatively low turnover of the housing stock. This latter point is, in turn, linked to low supply relative to demand. Lifting supply further is key to further mortgage market growth and containing price and rent inflation."
Source: www.businessworld.ie