Mortgage approvals up 7.3% in June

Lenders approved 1,652 mortgages with a total value of €280 million in June, figures released by the Irish Banking Federation (IBF) today show.

The actual number of approvals was up 7.3 per cent on the same month last year, when banks gave the green light to 1,540 home loans, but it was 4.1 per cent down on the 1,722 that got the go-ahead in May.

Total value
The total value of loans approved was 6.5 per cent ahead of June 2012 at €280 million from €263 million, but was down 5.2 per cent on May, when it reached €295 million.

The bulk of the loans were for houses, with just 134 of the 1,652 total for remortgages or mortgage top-ups.

This was almost 9 per cent ahead of June 2011, when 1,395 of the 1,540 total home loans approved were to buy houses, rather than for refinancing or topping up.

The average value of all mortgages approved was €169,274 in June, a fall of 0.7 per cent on the same month last year.

House purchases
The average value of mortgages given for house purchases was down 2.6 per cent at €174,675. Top-up and remortgage values grew almost 26 per cent on average to €108,112.

The banking federation said signs of sustained growth in mortgage approvals was welcome. “This growth, combined with reports from lenders of good levels of applications, signals a healthy pipeline of mortgage activity,” the organisation said.