Mortgage approvals for first-time buyers down in volume and up in value

However, the BPFI Mortgage Approvals Report for July 2018 also reveals a three per cent increase in the average value of a first-time buyer’s mortgage to €218,702.

The following are the key elements from the latest mortgage approvals figures:

• A total of 4,222 mortgages were approved in July 2018 – some 1,957 (46.4 per cent of total volume) were for first-time buyers (FTBs) while mover purchasers accounted for 1,249 (29.6 per cent).
• The number of mortgages approved rose by 6.6 per cent year-on-year and fell by 1.2 per cent month-on-month.
• Mortgages approved in July 2018 were valued at €931 million – of which FTBs accounted for €428 million (46.0 per cent) and €328 million (35.2 per cent) by mover purchasers.
• The value of mortgage approvals rose by 8.6 per cent year-on-year and fell by 3.2 per cent month-on-month.

Re-mortgage/switching approvals rose on a year-on-year basis – by 71.5 per cent in volume and by 73.6 per cent in value terms. While showing a small decline, First Time Buyers remain the single largest segment by volume (46.4 per cent) and by value (46 per cent).

The annualised volume of mortgage approvals reached 44,413 in the twelve months ending July 2018, marginally higher (0.59 per cent) than the twelve months ending June 2018. The annualised value of approval rose by 0.75 per cent to more than €9.8 billion.

The continued growth in overall mortgage volumes has been driven by switching (up 4.54 per cent), while FTB volumes have fallen from 22,224 in the twelve months ending February 2018, to 21,878 in the twelve months ending in July 2018.