Irish mortgage lending grew at the slowest annual pace in almost 16 years in March as rising borrowing costs and sliding property prices deterred house buyers, according to the Central Bank.
Home loans increased 11.6 per cent from a year earlier, the least since May 1992, Ireland's central bank said. The pace eased from 12.3 percent in February.
"The first quarter of 2008 remains the weakest start to a year for residential mortgages in five years," the central bank said in an e-mailed statement today.
A doubling of European Central Bank interest rates and a 10 per cent decline in house prices in the past year have held back demand for property and slowed homebuilding, threatening economic growth. Ireland's economy may expand 2.8 per cent this year, the worst performance since 1993, the government forecasts.
Bloomberg