Mortgage price cap ‘won’t deter competition’

New Central Bank figures showing falls in the average costs of mortgage rates have done little to silence calls for more aggressive cuts in home loan rates to eurozone levels.

And one of the country’s leading mortgage experts yesterday said the argument that setting controls over mortgage rates here would discourage new entrants moving into the market does not hold water.

Michael Dowling, chair of the mortgage committee at the Irish Brokers’ Association, said that despite the high margins, there were many reasons foreign banks were reluctant to set up new operations here, but that Central Bank controls was not one of them.