Number of home loans issued falls a massive 43%

JUST 28,000 mortgages were issued last year — a drop of 43% on the previous year.

The Irish Banking Federation/PWC mortgage market profile showed that 5,624 new mortgages worth €982 million were issued in the last quarter of 2010. The value of all mortgages for the year was €4.75 billion.

The volume of new lending in the fourth quarter was 22.5% lower than the third quarter.