Northern Ireland tops UK mortgage sales growth

Northern Ireland has reported the largest mortgage sales growth in the UK in March according to Equifax Touchstone, an intermediary intelligence provider. Overall, UK mortgage sales jumped to £16.4 billion (€19.6 billion) in March, up by 15.7 per cent on the previous month while Northern Ireland saw growth of 21 per cent.

Wales and London followed closely behind with sales increasing by 18.8 per cent and 17.2 per cent respectively.

Sales in the northwest of England and Scotland were at the bottom of the table and closed up by 12 per cent and 12.7 per cent respectively on February.

"It will be interesting to see if the market will react to the impending political uncertainty or if this strong upward trend in mortgage sales will prove resilient," said John Driscoll, director at Equifax Touchstone.

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The data from the company, which covers the majority of the intermediated lending market, shows that the average value of a residential mortgage in March was £196,994 (€235,483) in the UK, an increase of 3.6 per cent on the previous year.