{"id":32305,"date":"2025-08-30T05:57:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/32305\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T05:57:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:57:19","slug":"mortgage-approvals-reach-new-high-as-first-time-buyers-try-to-secure-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/32305\/","title":{"rendered":"Mortgage approvals reach new high as first-time buyers try to secure homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The value of loans, at almost \u20ac1.8bn, was the highest since that data began to be tracked. The figures, from the Banking & Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI), relate to the value of mortgages approved by lenders, not the amount that was drawn down.<\/p>\n

A total of 5,467 mortgages were approved in July, compared with 5,313 in July last year \u2013 a 3pc increase.<\/p>\n

The value of approved loans rose much more sharply (up 10pc year-on-year), reflecting surging house prices.<\/p>\n

The summer is always a period of peak demand.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The number of mortgage applications approved last month was up 3pc on July 2024. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n

Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Friday, August 29<\/p>\n

The July data shows 3,356 first-time buyer (FTB) mortgage approvals were the main driver of demand, exceeding \u20ac1.1bn in value for the first time. The smaller number of mover mortgages had a combined value of \u20ac435m.<\/p>\n

The total number of new approvals includes a relatively small number of buy-to-let investment loans, as well as re-mortgaging and switching by people who are refinancing or increasing an existing debt.<\/p>\n

That activity has been back on the rise this year as interest rates have been cut by the European Central Bank (ECB).<\/p>\n

\n

There were 9,214 new dwelling completions between April and June, an increase of 35pc on the same three months of 2024<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

BPFI chief executive Brian Hayes said the new numbers, when combined with previous data, point to the strength of first-time buyer demand in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn annualised terms, FTB activ\u00adity reached new heights, with 32,363 mortgage approvals valued at almost \u20ac10.4bn in the 12 months ending July 2025,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFTB demand remains very strong, with the Revenue Commissioners reporting Help to Buy applications reached almost 26,000 in the first seven months of the year \u2013 47pc more than in the same period of 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the same period, Help to Buy drawdowns were closer to 5,500, suggesting a significant gap between the numbers looking to buy and those successfully closing a deal on a new home.<\/p>\n

Figures last month from the Central Statistics Office recorded 9,214 new dwelling completions between April and June, an increase of 35pc on the same three months of 2024.<\/p>\n

It was also a big improvement on the 5,938 completions in the first quarter of the year.<\/p>\n

Apartment completions in the second quarter of the year stood at 3,053, more than twice the number built in the same quarter of last year, reflecting an uptick in a sector that developers have regarded as uneconomic.<\/p>\n

There were 1,566 apartment completions in the second quarter of last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The value of loans, at almost \u20ac1.8bn, was the highest since that data began to be tracked. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,10891,18,3847,8752,19,17,1267],"class_list":{"0":"post-32305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donal-odonovan","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-housing","12":"tag-housing-crisis","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-property-mortgages"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}