Nearly 3,000 mortgage approvals in August despite low supply

Nearly 3,000 mortgages were approved in August 2016, a rise of 37 per cent on August last year.

The new figures published by the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland also show a 50 per cent increase in the value of mortgages approved to €595 million.

However Conall MacCoille, economist with Davy Stockbrokers, has warned that not every approval will result in a sale, due to declining numbers of homes for sale.

He said: “The worry is that growing numbers of buyers are now chasing too few homes, with numbers of properties listed for sale falling and weak housing construction.”

The figures relate to both first-time buyers and those “trading up”.

Broken down, approvals among first-time buyers were up by 22.8 per cent on last year, with some 1,640 mortgages approved in August.

First-time buyers therefore accounted for almost half (48 per cent) of all mortgage approvals in August 2016.

There was also an increase in the number of people “trading up”, with a 25 per cent rise in approvals to 1,120.

First-time buyers and those trading up accounted for some 86 per cent of the value and 81 per cent of the volume of mortgage approvals.