First time buyers now need an average mortgage of €277,000 to purchase a property according to a study by the Banking and Payment Federation of Ireland.

This figure has been on a trending increase since January 2021 when the same metric was recorded at €239,000. 

According to the latest BPFI report, 2,640 FTB mortgages were approved in May 2022, representing half of the total number of mortgages approved. 

The value of mortgage approvals for property purchase increased through May by 11.3% year-on-year to €1,100m.

The value of FTB mortgage approvals increased by 14.0% year-on-year to €730m, while the value of mover purchase approvals increased by 6.3% year-on-year to €350m.

In Association with

Re-mortgage and switching approval values rose by 129% year-on-year to €330m while the value of top-up approvals fell by 12.0% year-on-year to €27m.

The increase in mortgage values reflects higher borrowings, as the volume of mortgage approvals has been relatively static year-on-year.

The BPFI recorded total mortgage approvals in May of 3,840, a marginal annual increase of 0.7%. In April the number of mortgage approvals declined.

FTB mortgage approval volumes increased by 2.3% to 2,640 while mover purchase approval volumes decreased by 2.7% year-on-year to 1,080.

Residential investment letting (RIL) mortgage approval volumes decreased by 2.5% year-on-year to 119.

Remortgage and switching mortgage approval volumes doubled to 1,240 while the number of top-up approvals fell by 2.5% year-on-year to 280.

(Pic: Getty Images)