Leadership

Number of mortgages issued down 56.4pc year-on-year

11.11.2009
The number of new mortgages being issued continued to fall during the third quarter of the year, new figures released today by the Irish Banking Federation (IBF) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have shown.

According to the IBF/PwC Mortgage Market Profile, 12,189 new mortgages to the value of some €2.1bn were issued during the third quarter of 2009.

This represents a 3.9pc reduction in the numbers of people taking out mortgages from the previous quarter and a massive 56.4pc slump year-on-year.

First-time buyers grow market share
However, the figures also showed that the number of mortgages issued to first-time buyers (FTBs) has now increased for the second quarter in a row.

FTBs market share of mortgages grew to 35.6pc by value and 29.8pc by volume during the third quarter, the IBF/PwC said.

The figures also revealed that one in every two new mortgages goes to the key home-purchaser segments of the market – FTBs and mover purchasers.

Mortgages for residential investment letting purchases continued to decline in both absolute and market share terms, the figures showed.

Rate of decline
“While the overall level of mortgage lending in Q3 shows little change from the previous quarter, the rate of decline in activity that has been so evident over recent quarters now appears to be moderating,” said IBF Chief Executive, Pat Farrell.

“Significantly, we have seen an increase of nearly 500 over the previous quarter in the number of mortgages issued to FTBs and this important segment continues to build market share.

“Not surprisingly, the investment end of the market continues to decline,” Farrell added.