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Mortgage approvals continue to grow, driven by first-time buyers

New figures show that the number of mortgages approved were up 0.9% in April on a monthly basis, while they rose by over 98% compared with the same time last year.

Banking & Payments Federation Ireland said a total of 4,362 mortgages were approved in April.

First-time buyers (FTBs) were approved for 54.8% of the total volume of these new mortgages, while mover purchasers accounted for 22.2%.

Today’s figures also reveal that mortgages approved in April 2021 were valued at €1.089 billion.

FTBs accounted for €600 million of these loans and mover purchasers for €297 million.

The value of mortgage approvals rose by 2.4% month-on-month and by 107.5% year-on-year, BPFI said.

Brian Hayes, chief executive of BPFI said the data shows that April was another strong month for mortgage approvals, especially for FTBs.

“Compared with April last year, when the country was experiencing its first lockdown, there has been a doubling of activity across most mortgage categories during April 2021,” Mr Hayes said.

“It is important we look at the figures in the context of how different those two lockdowns have been and take into account how well lenders and customers have adapted in the intervening 12 months to working within Level 5 restrictions,” he added.

The annualised figures show there were 46,131 mortgage approvals in the twelve months ending April 2021, valued at €11.2 billion.

This is the highest value since the BPFI mortgage approvals data began in 2011.

“This was driven mainly by FTB approvals, which jumped to almost €6.2 billion in the twelve months ending April 2021, up 5.9% on the twelve months ending March 2021,” explained Mr Hayes.

“These trends point to a solid pipeline for drawdown activity later in the year,” he said.

Article Source – Mortgage approvals continue to grow, driven by first-time buyers – RTE – Gill Stedman

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