New figures from Banking Payments Federation Ireland show a slowdown in mortgage approvals in October both on a monthly and annual basis.
BPFI said a total of 4,568 mortgages were approved in October, which marked a monthly fall of 4.2% and a yearly drop of 12.3%.
Of these mortgages, 2,533 were for first time buyers, who made up 55.5% of the total volume. Mover purchasers accounted for 1,076 or 23.6% of the approved mortgages.
Today’s figures also show that mortgages approved in October were valued at €1.188 billion of which FTBs accounted for €656m (55.2%) and €327m by mover purchasers (27.5%).
The value of mortgage approvals fell by 1.4% month-on-month and were down 5.2% year-on-year, BPFI added.
Brian Hayes, chief executive of BPFI, said that while the latest mortgage figures show a slowdown in approvals, it was important to look at this this in the context of figures for 2020 which did not follow the traditional seasonality of mortgage approvals due to the upheaval caused by Covid-19.
“It is also worth noting that these October 2021 figures were also the second highest levels of approvals volumes and values for the month of October since the data series began in 2011,” Mr Hayes said.
Brian Hayes said that the fourth quarter of the year is generally the strongest quarter for mortgage drawdowns and with a strong pipeline of mortgage approvals the outlook is very positive for a strong end to the year.
Article Source – Mortgage approvals slow in October – BPFI – RTE