More than 4,000 mortgages approved in November

More than 4,000 mortgage applications were approved in November, up 2 per cent on the same month a year earlier but 7.4 per cent lower than October, new figures show.

Data from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) indicate 4,182 approvals were given in the month for mortgages worth a combined €960 million. For the same month a year earlier, 4,102 approvals had been granted for mortgages valued at €896 million.

Mortgage approval for property purchases rose by 4.7 per cent year-on-year to 3,358, the figures reveal.

First-time buyer approval volumes were up 8.6 per cent on an annual basis to 2,109 while the number of mortgages approved for people moving homes increased by 0.3 per cent to 1,112.

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Residential investment letting approvals fell by 12.7 per cent year-on-year to 137 while remortgage/switching approvals were down 11.6 per cent to 524. Top-up approvals fell 0.3 per cent to 300.

The value of mortgage approvals for property purchase was up 11.3 per cent to €816 million with first-time buyer approvals value climbing 12.6 per cent to €493 million. Mover purchase approvals increased 11.1 per cent to €303 million.

Over the same period, investment approval values declined 13.7 per cent to €19 million while remortgage/switching approval values were down 12.7 per cent to €119 million. Top-up approval values fell 2.9 per cent on an annual basis to €26 million.

"While mortgage approvals for November were down on the previous month, this was expected due to the seasonal effect that we typically see in the latter stages of the year. Looking at the recent underlying trends, approvals grew both in volume and value terms year-on-year with the first-time buyer segment showing consistent growth and this continues to be a key driver of the market," said BPFI chief executive Brian Hayes.

There were 48,968 mortgage approvals overall in the 12 months to November, valued at €11 billion, the latest data shows.

Annualised mortgage approval activity to the end of November rose in volume terms by 0.16 per cent compared with the 12 months ending the previous month. They were up 0.59 per cent in value terms over the same period.