Within hours of the re-election in Australia of the sitting coalition Government led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday, the first in what can be expected as a series of steps is underway to fight the falling property market.

Almost a quarter of the population have only ever borrowed money for a mortgage.

The price of new builds for first-time buyers will continue to rise by an annual 5% to 6% for the next few years, although the Central Bank’s mortgage lending rules are weighing on prices in the second-hand market, says Glenveagh Properties.

There is a warning over the pace at which house prices are rising.

British consumers increased their borrowing at the slowest pace in more than a year-and-a-half in May and banks offered fewer mortgages, data from the country’s banking industry showed yesterday, adding to signs of a slowdown in the economy.

Bank lending to SMEs fell by 8.9% on a year-on-year basis during the first three months of the year, marking the 22nd consecutive quarter of downward movement, new figures from the Central Bank have shown.

The Governor of the Central Bank says he doesn't believe the change in mortgage lending rules will drive up house prices.

The Central Bank had by accident dropped into a political fight which it was never going to lose, but has nonetheless avoided a much messier outcome by sanctioning only minor changes to its inflexible mortgage lending rules.

The Central Bank’s mortgage lending rules should be maintained to help head off the boom-bust economic cycles that have plagued Ireland and brought the country to its knees during the recession, the IMF has warned.

Struggling families will be able to avoid going to loan sharks by using a new low-interest lending scheme.

The Irish Brokers Association has reiterated its call for a loosening of mortgage loan restrictions, as the Central Bank published research on the way the rules are affecting the mortgage market since they were first introduced in early 2015.

The Central Bank has dismissed calls for the introduction of formal switching legislation to make it easier for consumers to change their mortgage lender.

Lenders are more willing to strike new permanent deals with troubled mortgage borrowers, if they are less distressed in the first place, Central Bank research has shown.

Major British lenders expect household and business demand for loans to slow after last month’s vote to leave the EU, the Bank of England has said, in another sign the economy may be slowing.

Confused borrowers are making expensive mistakes costing them thousands of euro extra in some cases, a new report has found.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said plans to contain the fallout from the Brexit vote were working as he announced a move to boost lending to UK households and businesses by up to £150bn.

AIB will cut its standard variable mortgage rate twice more this year, to below 3%, and while Permanent TSB will cut in the coming weeks, Bank of Ireland will hold firm against “political pressures”, Investec Ireland has predicted.

Michael McGrath, Fianna Fáil finance spokesman, has turned up the heat on the debate about the best ways to lower the still elevated levels of mortgage arrears, saying one approach — the so-called mortgage-to-rent scheme — is not working as it should.

The OECD — the international think tank — said the Government should do more for Irish indigenous SMEs as it highlighted small firms here pay among the highest borrowing costs in the eurozone.

British mortgage lending grew at the weakest pace since 2012 as a new tax on landlords took effect, and uncertainty about Britain’s future in Europe dampened other borrowing, too.

The country’s chronic housing shortage is set to persist and push property prices even higher while, at the same time, the Central Bank’s mortgage rules continue to restrict lending to ‘abnormally low’ levels despite a pick-up in April.

AIB said it’s delivering in cutting mortgage rates and was confident its provisioning for bad loans and its accounts were up to scratch after a whistleblower approached regulators.

Setting up a specialist lender for the construction sector, like the original ACC Bank did for farming, and reducing the Vat rate on building homes could help cut costs and ease the housing crisis, according to a major new study.

Farming organisation IFA and its 75,000 members yesterday opened up a new front on the controversy surrounding high rates that Irish lenders charge for mortgages, saying that politicians need also focus on “excessively high” business rates facing farmers and SMEs too.

Traditional lending institutions such as banks have been accused of doing a poor job in understanding the nature of the agri-food sector.

The running sore of mortgage arrears — eight years after the onset of the financial crisis — is back on top of the political agenda as Independent TDs negotiate their participation in a new government, the Irish Examiner has learned.

The Bank of England has recommended tighter lending criteria for buy-to-let mortgages and it is monitoring for signs that risks are accelerating.

RBS is committed to retaining Ulster Bank operations in the Republic, but the round of cost-cutting will continue relentlessly, Ulster Bank has said.

The Central Bank is not shifting on its tough mortgage lending rules.

Divided global bank regulators are preparing for a showdown on rules intended to make sure taxpayers will not be on the hook when one of the world’s biggest lenders fails.

The European Central Bank’s supervisory arm has set the capital levels the eurozone’s largest lenders must hold and will communicate its draft decisions to the banks shortly, according to sources.

The amount lent by AIB to home-owners and businesses was 42% higher in 2014 than the previous year, the bank’s chairman has said.