Mortgage approvals drop by more than 10% during January

Chief executive of the BPFI Brian Hayes said it was 'worth noting that approvals activity tends to be weakest between December and February'.

Mortgage approvals last month slumped by more than 10% compared to the same period in 2025, with mover-purchaser mortgages seeing the largest drop off, new data from the Banking and Payments Federation, Ireland (BPFI) shows.

In total 3,034 mortgages were approved in January, of which first-time buyers accounted for 1,800, a decline of 7.2% year-on-year, and mover-purchasers accounted for 565, a 23.3% drop.

The total number of mortgages approved during the month was down 10.6%. The combined value of these mortgages stood at €954m.

This means the average mortgage stood at just under €314,500 — up from the just over €300,000 average approved mortgage in January 2025.

The value of first-time buyer mortgages stood at €576m, resulting in an average value of €313,300 while the total value of mover-purchaser mortgages hit €210m resulting in an average mortgage value of €371,700.

Remortgaging/switching activity as well as residential investment letting mortgages also saw a decline in mortgage volumes to 390, down 11.4%, and 47, down 23%, respectively.

The only mortgage segment to see a year-on-year increase in approvals was top-up mortgages, up 6.9% in volume terms to 232 and up 18.8% in value terms of €37m.

Chief executive of the BPFI Brian Hayes said while approval activity declined overall and in most segments in year-on-year terms it was “worth noting that approvals activity tends to be weakest between December and February”.

“However, mover purchase activity continues to decline, with 565 mover purchase mortgage approvals in January 2026, the lowest volume since June 2020,” he said.

This comes as data from last week shows house prices across the country are fully 25% ahead of the highest levels seen during the property boom, with the average cost of buying a home in Dublin at €500,000.

The latest residential property price index shows prices increased nationally by 7% in the 12 months to December 2025, a slight drop from the 7.3% to the end of last September. The median price of a house sale was €387,000 in the 12 months to last December.

Mr Hayes added housing supply “remains constrained, with market indicators, as well as the slowdown in mover purchase activity, pointing to limited supply of secondhand properties for sale”.

New housing output looks encouraging for the year ahead, but we will need to see a marked increase in commencement activity in the first half of this year to sustain output beyond 2026.

During 2025, a total of 36,284 new homes were completed, an increase of 20.4% from 2024, and the highest annual figure since the series began in 2011.

Figures released by the Central Statistics Office show much of the increase was driven by a surge in apartment completions, which reached 12,047 in 2025.

However, home building would still need to increase significantly if the Government is to reach its goal of 300,000 new homes by 2030.

In addition, housing commencements across the country fell to just 16,412 last year, following a spike in 2024. 

In December, there were 3,065 commencements, double the 1,533 recorded in November.