Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has published the latest figures from the BPFI Mortgage Drawdowns Report for Q4 2020 and the BPFI Mortgage Approvals Report for December 2020.

The following are the key figures from the Mortgage Drawdowns Report for Q4 2020. The following are the key elements:

• 12,154 new mortgages to the value of €2,950 million were drawn down by borrowers during the fourth quarter of 2020.
• This represents a fall of 0.9% in volume and an increase of 6.6% in value on the corresponding fourth quarter of 2019. 
• A comparison with the previous quarter (Q3 2020) shows an increase of 49.2% in volume and 50.7% in value.
• First-time buyers (FTBs) remained the single largest segment by volume (56.6%) and by value (57%). 
• In total, 35,617 mortgages to a value of €8,365 million were drawn down in 2020. This was the lowest level of activity since 2017.

In addition, BPFI also published today the latest figures from the BPFI Mortgage Approvals Report for December 2020:

• A total of 3,999 mortgages were approved in December 2020 – some 2,139 were for FTBs (53.5%) of total volume) while mover purchasers accounted for 997 (24.9%).
• The number of mortgages approved in December fell by 23.1% month-on-month but rose by 34.9% year-on-year.
• Mortgages approved in December 2020 were valued at €979 million – of which FTBs accounted for €518 million (53.0%) and €287 million by mover purchasers (29.3%).
• The value of mortgage approvals fell by 23.6% month-on-month and rose by 40.5% year-on-year.
• During 2020 a total of 43,151 mortgages were approved to the value of €10,340 million. The number of approvals in 2020 was the lowest since 2017. However, the value of approvals was 6.7% less than in 2019 but 2.1% more than in 2018, as the average approved mortgage grew by almost 6% year on year.

Speaking on the publication of the data, Brian Hayes, Chief Executive, BPFI said: “Our latest mortgage data is showing strong year-on-year growth in approvals and drawdowns in December and Q4, respectively. In fact during the final quarter of 2020, we recorded the highest value of drawdowns since Q4 2008. This was driven by first-time buyers who reached their highest levels in both volume and value terms since Q3 2007.”

“And while the recovery in mortgage activity in recent months in has not fully offset the sharp decline we saw earlier in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions, the continued strong performance of approvals suggests that there is a good pipeline for drawdowns in the first and second quarter of this year. It remains to be seen however the impact the current lockdown we are experiencing will have on prospective homebuyers and the mortgage market as we move beyond that.”

The BPFI Mortgage Drawdowns and Mortgage Approvals reports are available on the BPFI website.

BPFI