Irish mortgage holders pay less interest than Europeans
New figures, published yesterday by the Central Bank, show that the weighted average interest rate on outstanding loans to households for house purchase stood at 3%, as of the end of March.
That was still below the average mortgage interest rate being charged across the eurozone area, as a whole, which stood at 3.49% as of the end of March; falling by 36 basis points since March of last year.
The average Irish rate has remained “stable”, over the past year according to the Central Bank, with the 12-month average rate standing at 2.96%.
Last month, AIB announced a 0.4% increase in its variable mortgage rates, with EBS’ rising by 0.25% — both of which are due to kick-in next month.
Yesterday’s Central Bank information, for the month of March, also noted that the weighted average interest rate on outstanding household loans for consumption and other purposes remained unchanged at 5.67% during the month, but was down by 28 basis points when compared to the same month last year.
The interest rate on short-term loans for consumption purposes stood at 9.18%, meanwhile, which was higher than the eurozone average of 7.79%.
In terms of longer-term loans, the interest rate on loans with an original maturity over five years was 4.03% at the end of March; down by just two basis points on the previous year. The eurozone equivalent was an average rate of 4.89%.
Interest rates on new business loans for house purchases, with either a floating rate or an initial rate fixation of up to one year, were 3.16% as of the end of March. This rate was down by two basis points on February, but was above the 2.16% corresponding average for the wider eurozone region.
Additionally, the Central Bank yesterday updated on the reliance of Irish-based financial institutions on ECB lending. The figure for April sees a drop from €53bn to over €52.7bn.
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