However, the impact of COVID-19 on the mortgage market won’t be clear until the figures for April are released, the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) warned.

A total of 3,733 mortgages were approved in March, a 6.2 per cent month-on-month increase but a 9.9 per cent year-on-year fall. Most (1,946) approvals were for first-time buyers (FTBs), with mover purchasers just over a quarter (970).

Mortgages approved in March were valued at €879 million, a 6.5 per cent month-on-month increase and a 4.5 per cent year-on-year drop, of which FTBs accounted for €463 million (52.7 per cent) and mover purchasers accounted for €260 million (29.5 per cent).

Brian Hayes, BPFI chief executive, said: “The latest figures from BPFI’s mortgage approvals and drawdown reports are broadly in line with what we would have expected to see in a pre-COVID landscape with the approvals figures in particular reflecting a tapering off in the mortgage market over the past 12 months due to the growing affordability challenge we have seen for buyers.

“Looking ahead, there is no doubt that the period ahead is going to be challenging for the mortgage market and the housing market as a whole, given the changing conditions in the economy and its direct impact on incomes and employment.”

He added: “We expect to see the first effects of COVID-19 on the mortgage market coming through in April’s mortgage approvals figures which will be published at the end of May.”