Mortgage approvals rise

Just under 1,700 mortgages were approved by Irish lenders in October, representing a monthly increase of 10.3% in the homeloan approval rate.

On a year-on-year basis, mortgage approvals were up by 27% last month.

The data — published yesterday by the Irish Banking Federation (IBF) — shows the vast majority of the lending was for house purchases; with 1,565 loans granted for this purpose.