As inflation bites across the board, the number of people switching their mortgage is at the highest level on record, figures reveal. It comes amid a backdrop of thousands of hopeful homebuyers being pressed out of the market by a shortage of properties for sale.
Switching mortgages grew strongly in September, with volumes up by 36.6% year on year and almost 7,000 switcher mortgages approved in the 12 months ending September 2021.
The booming figures don’t necessarily indicate good news for prospective house buyers as less than half of those approved seem to draw down, indicating a severe lack of supply.
A total of 11,479 new mortgages to the value of €2,784million were drawn down by borrowers during the third quarter of 2021. This represents an increase of 40.9% in volume and 42.3% in value on the corresponding third quarter of 2020, when the country was in the middle of a lockdown.
First-time buyers remained the single largest section by volume (52.7%) and by value (52.8%).
As the economy opens up and unnecessary spending increases, Martina Hennessy, managing director of doddl.ie cautioned first-time mortgage applicants to manage their spending and continue to save regularly, even if they have already saved their full deposit.
Even if your income is strong and you’ve saved your deposit, your application will not be successful if you are not clearly demonstrating repayment capacity prior to application.