Mortgage switching and remortgaging activity has declined by 79.4% in the last year, according to the latest report from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).
Their report for August showed that there were just over 300 mortgages approved in this category, compared to 1,600 a year earlier.
Overall, there has been a slowdown in mortgage approval activity, driven by this drop in switching.
A total of 4,534 mortgages were approved in August 2023, with first-time buyers were approved for 2,829 mortgages (62.4% of total volume) while mover purchasers accounted for 1,029 (22.7%).
Despite this, the number of mortgages approved fell by 4.5% month-on-month and by 18.2% compared with the same period last year.
Mortgages approved in August were valued at €1,302 million – of which first-time buyers accounted for €820 million (62.9%) and mover purchasers for €346 million (26.5%).
The value of mortgage approvals fell by 3.9% month-on-month and fell by 14.2% year-on-year.
Re-mortgage/switching activity fell by 79.4% in volume terms year-on-year and by 81.7% in value in the same period.
"Approvals activity for FTB mortgages usually peaks between May and July so it's not surprising to see approvals fall from the historical highs in May 2023," said Ali Uğur, Chief Economist for BPFI.
"FTBs continue to dominate the market with FTB mortgage approval values reaching more than €8.5 billion in the 12 months ending August 2023, while the annualised number of FTB mortgage approvals exceeded 30,000 for the first time since our data series began in 2011," he added.
Mr Uğur said this suggests that the pipeline for home purchase drawdowns remains very strong despite an overall slowdown.
