€10,000 in mortgage savings but experts say Central Bank has role to help switchers

Broker says the best way to encourage switching is to cut the "excessively complex" process that requires the same amount of documentation to change lenders as it does to secure a mortgage from scratch

The process of switching a mortgage to a rival lender could be curtailed from months to a matter of days by the Central Bank. Picture: iStock

Switching a mortgage to a rival lender will save thousands of Irish borrowers over €1,000 in the first year, and more than €10,000 over the lifetime of the loan, according to new Central Bank research, which pins the blame for borrowers' inertia on factors including poor financial literacy and education. 

However, leading mortgage brokers said the Central Bank could do a lot more in driving change and make it much easier for a borrower to switch loans by severely reducing the amount of documentation required to switch a mortgage and by publicising more widely the huge savings available.