Mortgage approvals hit record €14.1bn over last year

The number of mortgages approved in May rose by over 10 per cent compared to last year.

Mortgage approval values jumped by almost 18 per cent, with a record €14.1 billion approved in the 12 months to May.

Figures from the Banking and Payments Federation also show the number of home owners seeking to re-mortgage or switch rose by 67 per cent.

The number of home mortgage approvals in the past year exceeded 43,000 for the first time since the lobby group began collecting the data. A total of 43,070 mortgages were approved in the 12 months ending in May.

The average mortgage approval value hit a new record of €319,000 the month prior, in April 2025, as figures from the Central Statistics Office show house prices in Ireland grew at an average annual rate of 7.5 per cent in April.

It comes amid ongoing supply shortages and surging demand fuelled by Government incentives and expectations of further interest rate cuts.

The chief executive of BPFI, Brian Hayes, said mortgage approval figures showed “continued growth in May” noting that home mortgage activity had “climbed to new heights”.

He said first-time buyers “continued to dominate with 32,118 mortgage approvals valued at more than €10.1 billion over the same period.”

Mortgage switching approvals reached their highest monthly levels in May since January 2023 following an increase of 66.9 per cent in volume and a 94.9 per cent just in value year on year.

Mr Hayes noted this was an increase on a “relatively low base” but said it returned the activity level to “historically typical levels” following “a sharp peak in activity in 2022 and subsequent slowdown”.