Switching drives growth in mortgage drawdowns

Between July and the end of September, 11,774 mortgages were drawn down. 

Mortgage switching activity received a bump during the third quarter as the number of drawdowns by first-time buyers remained flat compared to the same period last year, new data from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland shows.

The figures show that between July and September, 11,774 mortgages were drawn down — a slight increase from 11,614 last year. First-time buyers accounted for 7,041 of these mortgages, an increase of 30 year-on-year.

Mover-purchaser drawdowns dropped nearly 6% to 2,559 while mortgages for residential investment lettings dropped over 7% to 178. On the other hand, switching drawdowns increased 26.1% to 1,159.

The total value of all these mortgages stood at €3.4bn — a 7.4% increase compared to last year.

First-time buyers accounted for 61.4% of the total value of all mortgage drawdowns.

Mortgage drawdown volumes on new properties increased by 14.7% year-on-year with more than 3,000 mortgages on new properties.

Chief executive of the BPFI, Brian Hayes, said this increase was driven mainly by an increase in first-time buyer mortgages on new properties which rose by 18.8% to 2,489, “signalling continued momentum in new home building”.