A total of 3,340 mortgages were approved in April, up 11.7pc year-on-year, but down 11.6pc month-on-month, according to the latest data released by the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI).
The value of mortgages approved in April 2017 was €685m, of which €366m, or just over 53pc, of approvals were for first time buyers, while one in three approvals were to finance mover purchasers.
The slowdown in April may have been caused by a number of factors including the timing of Easter and the number of bank holidays in the month. However, according to Davy analysts, average mortgage approvals tend to be very volatile and are likely to bounce back in the coming months.
Other indicators point to a lack of supply in the housing market, with prices rising rapidly. Therefore the weaker numbers in April for the average mortgage approval are likely to be temporary.
For first-time buyers, the average mortgage approval was €201k, up 5.7pc on the year but down from €205k in March. Meanwhile for mover-purchasers, the average approval was €236k, up 8.6pc on the year.
Overall there has been €7.9bn of mortgage approvals over the past twelve months.
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