New figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland show that mortgage approvals fell by 9.2% in August following a record high in July.
But mortgage approvals continued to show growth on an annual basis, rising by 18% in August compared to the same month last year.
Banking and Payments Federation Ireland said that a total of 4,572 mortgages were approved in August. First-time buyers were approved for 53.8% of the total volume, while mover purchasers accounted for 25.8%.
Mortgages approved in August of this year were valued at €1.160 billion.
First-time buyers accounted for €622m (53.6%) and mover purchasers for €351m (30.3%) of this total.
Today’s figures show that almost €13.4 billion mortgages were approved in the 12 months ending August, BPFI added.
Ali Uğur, chief economist at BPFI, said that approvals activity often peaks during the summer but the latest mortgage approvals for August show continued growth compared with 2020, especially for first-time buyers’ mortgages.
“In total almost €1.2 billion in mortgages were approved, 22.6% more than in August 2020. These were the highest volumes and values in August since the data series began,” the economist stated.
He said the annualised figures, which gives a more accurate assessment of emerging key trends, showed that 54,208 mortgage approvals were secured in the 12 months ending August, valued at almost €13.4 billion.
This also marked the highest volume and value since the data series began.
“The annualised figures reached new highs in each of the FTB, mover purchase and re-mortgage or switcher segments,” he said.
“These are significant figures and very much signal a robust pipeline for drawdown activity later in the year,” he added.
Source: RTE
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