Busy January for first-time buyer lending and mortgage switching, says BPFI

Lending to first-time buyers reached its highest January level in at least 11 years last month, while remortgaging or switching activity also saw a strong start to the year, new figures from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show.

The volume and value of mortgages approved for first-time buyers had its best January since the BPFI’s data series began in 2011, which the industry body said pointed to a “solid pipeline for drawdown activity” over the year ahead.

Remortgaging and switching activity rose 37 per cent in volume and 48 per cent in value compared with January 2021, which also made it the highest January for switching volumes and value since 2011. This was also the second highest value of switching overall since 2011.

Residential investment letting mortgage approvals – buy-to-let-mortgages – is another category showing year-on-year growth, up 21 per cent in volume and 43 per cent in value year-on-year.

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"Our latest mortgage approvals data shows mortgage approval activity performed well in January. We saw continued year-on-year growth in both approval volumes and value especially amongst first-time buyers with volumes up by 9.3 per cent year-on-year and values up 17 per cent," said BPFI chief economist and head of prudential regulation Ali Ugur.

A total of 3,621 mortgages were approved in January 2022, with first-time buyers approved for 1,868 of these, or 51.6 per cent of the total volume, while movers accounted for 802, or 22.1 per cent.

The number of mortgages approved fell by 6.1 per cent month-on-month, but rose by 7.9 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Mortgages approved during the month were valued at €932 million, of which FTBs accounted for €479 million (51.3 per cent) and movers for €243 million (26.1 per cent).

The value of approvals in January was down 7.8 per cent month on month, but was 13.2 per cent higher than it was in January 2021.