Professional Insurance Brokers Association: 1 in 3 approvals won’t be drawn down

A huge year-on-year surge in mortgage approvals in the three months to the end of August will have little effect on many borrowers’ situations and fail to sufficiently lift actual lending, according to the Professional Insurance Brokers Association (PIBA).

New figures from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show mortgage approvals surged 25.7% higher on an annual basis in the three months to the end of August.

PIBA chief operations officer (COO) Rachel McGovern warned that the sharp uptick in approvals will not translate into a similar increase in drawdowns and house purchases though.