Banks are lending less for homes

IRISH banks are cutting the size of loans to first-time house buyers as they tighten lending terms in response to the credit shortage, Davy Stockbrokers said.

Banks, on average, are offering a single, first-time buyer earning €60,000 a maximum loan of €303,000, down from €333,000 when the survey was last carried out in October 2007, Dublin- based Davy, Ireland’s largest securities firm, said yesterday, citing a survey it had carried out of unidentified banks.

A couple earning the same amount would get at most a mortgage of €318,000, down from a maximum of €355,000 in October.