Research released today by Royal London shows that over 70% of people believe that the Central Bank’s mortgage lending rules should be changed or scrapped.
Royal London commissioned a survey on the topic, which was conducted by IReach, of 1,000 people throughout the country.
The survey results illustrated that general support exists for the Central Bank’s lending rules. However, the majority of respondents feel that some fine tuning of the measures is definitely needed, with 48% suggesting that there should be some relaxation for first time buyers.
Over half (59%) of all of the respondents believe that some changes and augmentation of the rules is needed, with a further 12% feeling that they should be scrapped altogether.
A relaxing of the rules for first time buyers in expensive areas was favoured by respondents from Dublin (23%) in comparison to those anywhere else in the country.
Joe Charles of Royal London commented, "The overall impact on the market of the Central Bank rules has yet to be fully determined, though the most recent data show that mortgage approvals fell by 15%. First time buyers’ mortgage approvals fell by 23%.
"Prices are also rising, with house prices up 7.5%. So whether there’s an actual causation between the tightening of mortgage lending rules and these market changes remains to be fully analysed in-depth, there’s no doubt it’s a very challenging place to be for those looking to purchase a home."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
