First-time buyers lift April mortgage figures
Figures from the main banks show that the volume of mortgages approved in April rose compared with the same month last year, as activity among first-time buyers (FTBs) hit record highs.
Banking Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) said that its members approved 4,707 in April – with FTBs accounting for 62% of the market.
The number of mortgages approved rose by 4.7% compared with March and by 5.8% compared with the same period last year.
€1.5 billion approved
Mortgages approved in April were worth just over €1.5 billion – of which FTBs accounted for 64% and mover purchasers for 21%.
The value of mortgage approvals rose by 5.1% month-on-month and by 13.6% year-on-year.
Re-mortgaging and switching jumped by more than 50% in volume terms year-on-year and by almost 75% in value in the same period.
There were 2,922 first-time buyer (FTB) approvals valued at almost €1 billion in April – the highest April levels since the organisation began compiling the data in 2011.
‘Healthy pipeline’
Over the past year, banks approved 31,853 FTB mortgages valued at almost €10 billion – also a record since the data series began.
BPFI chief executive Brian Hayes said that the FTB figures pointed to “a healthy pipeline” for lending in the coming months.
“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,” he stated.