Mortgage approvals continued to grow in April, with first-time buyer activity reaching new highs.
That’s according to the latest figures from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).
Their latest Mortgage Approvals report shows there were 2,922 first-time buyer approvals valued at €965 million in April – the highest April FTB levels since the data series began in 2011.
In total there were 4,705 mortgages approved in April with mover purchasers accounting for 845 or 18% of the total amount.
The number of mortgages approved rose by 4.7% month-on-month and by 5.8% compared with the same period last year.
31,853 FTB mortgages valued at almost €10 billion (€9,999m) were approved in the 12 months ending April 2025, the highest activity levels since the data series began.
Mortgages approved in April were valued at €1,502 million – of which FTBs accounted for €965 million (64.2%) and mover purchasers for €317 million (21.1%).
Re-mortgage/switching activity rose by 53.5% in volume terms year-on-year and rose by 74.8% in value in the same period.
Commenting on the publication of the latest data, BPFI Chief Executive Brian Hayes said: "The latest mortgage figures show continued growth in approvals in April 2025, with volumes up by 5.8% year on year and values up 13.6% over the same period."
"We can see from the figures that lenders are supporting more and more FTBs, which points to a healthy pipeline for lending in the coming months," he said.
"However, FTB housing demand is also growing, as evidenced by the 14,554 applications for Help to Buy in the first three months of 2025. This is up from 9,991 in the same period of 2024," said Mr Hayes.
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