May was the busiest month for first-time buyer mortgage approvals in both volume and value terms since the figures started being collected in 2011, new figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland show today.
First-time buyer approvals rose by 26.4% to €926m in May, bringing the annualised value of FTB approvals to a total of €8.063 billion.
The figures show that a total of 4,928 mortgages were approved in May.
First-time buyers were approved for 3,170 mortgages (64.3% of the total volume), while mover-purchasers accounted for 1,033 (21%).
BPFI said the number of mortgages approved rose by 26.4% on a monthly basis, while they fell by 8% compared with the same time last year.
It also noted that re-mortgage/switching activity fell by 72% in volume terms year-on-year and by 72.8% in value in the same period.
BPFI Chief Executive Brian Hayes said the latest mortgage approval figures show that, while total volumes fell by 8% in May, first-time buyers continued to buck the declining trend, with FTB volumes increasing by 20.1% year-on-year to 3,170.
He also said the figures show a very strong pipeline for first-time buyers later in the year.
Article Source: First-time buyers mortgage approvals hit record high – RTE