Growth in home loans continues

CONTINUING strong growth in the demand for home loans is the dominant feature of the latest Central Bank credit figures to the 12 months to end June, 2003.

Term loans increased by 842m while residential mortgages showed an increase of €385m. That figure rises sharply to €1.1bn for the month, however, when account is taken of €750m secularisation by the lending institutions that masks the real lending level for house purchase.

Overall the bank’s figures show that the annual growth rate for mortgages was up by 23.9% in the year. That’s a marginal increase in the year to end of May when demand rose by 23.6%.