Our love affair with property hots up

THE Irish love affair with property continues. A massive €1.64 billion in mortgages was taken out by house buyers in April as employment growth and the lowest interest rates in 60 years fuelled demand for property.

This was the second-largest monthly increase in mortgage advances since the Irish Central Bank (ICB) began recording the data series in 1996. The highest was in July 2004. Home owners have 78.5bn outstanding in mortgage debt. This compares with just €45.5 billion in April 2003.

The low interest rate regime is expected to be maintained by the European Central Bank, which has left its benchmark rate unchanged at 2% since June 2003. All 37 economists surveyed by Bloomberg said the ECB will probably hold borrowing costs at its next meeting on June 2.