Bank of Ireland tweaks green mortgage offering

The bank announced it would offer a so-called ‘EcoSaver Mortgage’ which will align fixed-rate mortgages with Building Energy Ratings from A to G

Properties with a G rating provide the least amount of energy efficiency and could get a 0.05 percentage point discount. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Bank of Ireland has become the latest lender to tweak its green mortgage offering following moves by rivals PTSB and AIB.

The bank announced it would offer a so-called ‘EcoSaver Mortgage’ which will align fixed-rate mortgages with Building Energy Ratings (BER).

This new pricing scale will be available to new and existing customers from April 18 and will apply to all properties with any building energy rating (BER) from A to G.

Bank of Ireland began offering green mortgages in 2019 that provided a fixed-rate discount of 0.30% for customers with houses with an energy rating of B3 or higher, but the new product widens the net for customers with less energy efficient properties.

Properties with a G rating provide the least amount of energy efficiency and could get a 0.05 percentage point discount.

A property at the opposite end of the scale with an A BER could avail of a fixed-rate discount of 0.35 percentage points with the EcoSaver option.

On Monday, AIB cut its interest rate on green mortgages across all its brands including EBS and Green Haven. The lender reduced green mortgage fixed rates by 0.2%.

Meanwhile, PTSB introduced a three-year fixed rate for new green mortgage customers with rates from 3.80% to 4.35%.

Both PTSB and AIB only offer green mortgages to customers who own a home with an energy rating of B3 or higher.