Mortgage holders finally got some long overdue reprieve from lenders yesterday when AIB, EBS and Haven announced they were reducing their fixed and variable mortgage rates for new and existing customers.
The announcement was something of a landmark as it was the first time that any lender in Ireland has reduced rates in a number of years, despite the fact that the ECB rate is a record low of 0.05%.
While tracker mortgage holders have benefitted from the plethora of rate cuts experienced in recent years, fixed and variable rate customers have seen their rates remain largely unchanged and, in some cases, even seen them increase.
Now though 146,000 existing mortgage account holders are set to benefit from the announcement, with savings of around €334 per annum estimated for those with a mortgage of €200,000.
The 0.25% cut will now hopefully put pressure on other lenders to follow suit.
With a number of first time buyers also in the market for houses the 3.8% rate for a three year fixed rate mortgage and the 3.9% rate for a five-year fixed-rate mortgage will also be welcomed.
Yesterday Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, Ulster Bank and KBC Bank all decided to say if they would be following suit, although at least a handful are expected to do so.
- Do you think it’s time rates were cut for those on fixed and variable rates?
- Have people on fixed and variable rates been paying for the mistakes of banks?
Have your say below…
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