The number of mortgage approvals in April fell 5.9% month-on-month and 1.3% year-on-year as a total of 4,304 mortgages were authorised by lenders last month, according to the latest mortgage data from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).

Firm offers on mortgages totalled nearly €1.2bn in value, a decline of 3.7% month-on-month and 6.9% year-on-year, with 2,296 first-time buyers (53.3%) accounting for €635m or 54.5% of value and 923 mover-purchasers (21.4%) making up €287m or 24.7%.

Re-mortgage or switching grew by more than third (37.2%) in volume and 43.1% in value over the past 12 months as 775 mortgage holders renegotiated terms or switched providers on €206m worth of loans.

Brian Hayes, CEO of BPFI, said high remortgaging figures reflect "both the competition in the market and the fact that mortgage customers continue to shop around for better rates.

Over the past 12 months, there have been 54,038 mortgage approves, valued at €13.9bn, representing a decline of 0.11% and an increase of 0.54% from the 12 months to March in terms of volume and value, respectively.

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"While our latest mortgage figures show a slowdown in approvals growth, it’s important that we look at this in the context of the historically high levels at which the market has been operating for quite some time now, so it’s not unexpected to see some dips like we have during April," said Hayes.

"More than 54,000 mortgages were approved in the twelve months ending April 2022, with more than 29,000 going to FTBs alone. These are still close to the highest levels seen since the data series began in 2011.

"As we look ahead what is certain is that we have a very strong pipeline of approvals ensuring the outlook is positive for drawdowns as we progress through the year.” 

The average mortgage value of €263,476 in Q1 was almost €18,000 more than during the same period in 2021, and just off the €268,220 figure recorded in the first quarter of 2008.

(Pic: Getty Images)