{"id":680444,"date":"2026-09-09T14:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/680444\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T14:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:38:15","slug":"irish-mortgage-holders-warned-to-brace-for-tough-winter-with-two-rate-hikes-expected-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/680444\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish mortgage holders warned to brace for \u2018tough winter\u2019 with two rate hikes expected \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish mortgage holders<\/a> are being warned to brace for a \u201ctough winter\u201d with markets pricing in at least two more interest rate hikes between now and Christmas.<\/p>\n

With inflation<\/a> across the euro zone now running at more than 3 per cent, the European Central Bank<\/a> (ECB) is expected to announce another quarter-point lift in rates when it meets on Thursday, the second increase in four months.<\/p>\n

The prospect of a second rate hike before Christmas is also looming with ongoing conflict in the Middle East continuing to aggravate energy prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith little prospect of the Middle East conflict being resolved and other pressures such as that on the bond market, we could be facing a tough winter for mortgage holders,\u201d Rachel McGovern, deputy chief executive of Brokers Ireland, said.<\/p>\n

McGovern was speaking as the latest Central Bank<\/a> data showed the weighted average interest rate on new mortgage agreements in the Republic fell marginally to 3.48 per cent in July and was down 12 basis points annually.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the euro-zone average has increased by 24 basis points over the past year. The upward pressure on rates is, however, expected to play out here in the coming months.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0ECB must be ready to raise interest rates further, argues Gabriel MakhloufOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the average cost of new mortgages has fallen, given the expectation of another ECB rate increase tomorrow, borrowers need to be mindful that increased mortgage costs could be just around the corner,\u201d Trevor Grant, chairperson of Irish Mortgage Advisors, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany borrowers will understandably be worried about the prospect of another ECB rate hike tomorrow \u2013 the second increase in the space of three months \u2013 but it\u2019s important that they are not unduly alarmed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Has the Government\u2019s strategy to keep fuel costs down proved to be \u2018knee-jerk\u2019 and difficult to reverse?<\/p>\n

\u201cCompetition and not the ECB is the main influence on home loan rates in Ireland,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Central Bank figures indicated that 94 per cent of the new mortgage lending agreements in July had fixed interest rates, the highest proportion on record, reflecting the need for security against an uncertain financial backdrop.<\/p>\n

Fixed-rate products are the norm across Europe.<\/p>\n

Frankfurt is widely expected to tighten its policy while reiterating its data-dependent stance when policymakers meet on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The ECB became the first central bank in the G7 to respond to the Iran war in June when it raised borrowing costs by a quarter point to 2.25 per cent, and it is widely anticipated to lift borrowing costs by a further 25 basis points to 2.5 per cent on September 10th.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision we\u2019re going to make next week will not be a surprise to anybody,\u201d the governor of the Central Bank of Ireland Gabriel Makhlouf said last week, adding that he expected the ECB would also \u201cslightly\u201d raise its growth forecast for the euro zone this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish mortgage holders are being warned to brace for a \u201ctough winter\u201d with markets pricing in at least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[174],"tags":[40686,79,632,2190,179,18,9652,19,5389,17,20097,107128,9650],"class_list":["post-680444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-brokers-ireland","tag-business","tag-central-bank","tag-cost-of-living","tag-economy","tag-eire","tag-european-central-bank-ecb","tag-ie","tag-interest-rates","tag-ireland","tag-mortgage","tag-mortgage-application","tag-mortgages"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117241598637099950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680444","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=680444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}