The value of Irish mortgage approvals rose 15.3 per cent on the year to €1.7 billion in August, driven by first-time buyers, according to Banking and Payments Federation Ireland.
It marks the strongest August for approvals since the industry group began compiling such data in 2011, when the residential property market was in the doldrums after the real-estate bubble burst. A total of 5,083 mortgages were approved in August, up 12 per cent.
Some 55,850 mortgages were approved in the 12 months to August 2026, valued at almost €18.1 billion, exceeding €18 billion for the first time since the data series began.
“First-time buyers remained the main driver of activity, accounting for almost 60 per cent of approval volumes in August,” said Brian Hayes, chief executive of BPFI.
READ MORE
He added that the high level of approvals “indicates there is a healthy base for mortgage drawdowns for the rest of the year”. Irish mortgage drawdowns exceeded €6.78 billion across more than 21,200 mortgages in the first half of 2026, BPFI said in July.
Hayes said growing demand among first-time buyers is also evident in the more than 30,000 applications that had been submitted to the Government’s help-to-buy scheme in the first eight months of 2026, compared with about 28,000 during all of 2025.
Should Ireland share its corporation tax bonanza with the EU?
Earlier this week, the Central Bank revised down its forecasts for home completions.
It now expects completions to total 39,500, 41,000 and 45,000 for 2026, 2027 and 2028 respectively, down from 40,000, 42,000 and 46,000 previously.
Some 36,300 new homes were completed last year. The latest Central Bank data suggests 138,200 homes would need to be built between 2029 and 2030 in order for the Government to meet its target of 300,000 new homes being delivered between 2025 and 2030.
[ If Irish property is overvalued, will house prices fall?Opens in new window ]
In a special report on housing contained in its latest quarterly bulletin, the bank noted that the link between permissions and completions in the State had “weakened over time”.
“A consistent share of planning approvals do not get built – of the housing units granted planning approval in each year from 2017 to 2020, around a quarter lapsed without construction commencing in the subsequent five years,” it stated.
Irish home prices rose at an annual rate of 5.5 per cent in July, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office, as demand continues to outweigh supply. Property prices in Dublin rose by 4.4 per cent and prices outside Dublin were up by 6.4 per cent compared with July 2025.
