Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has published the latest figures from the BPFI Mortgage Approvals Report for January 2023. The following are the key elements:

• A total of 3,697 mortgages were approved in January 2023 – first-time buyers (FTBs) were approved for 1,890 mortgages (51.1% of total volume) while mover purchasers accounted for 854 (23.1%).
• The number of mortgages approved rose by 1.7% month-on-month and by 2.1% compared with the same period last year.
• Mortgages approved in January were valued at €1,015 million – of which FTBs accounted for €520 million (51.2%) and mover purchasers for €278 million (27.4%).
• The value of mortgage approvals rose by 1.9% month-on-month and by 8.9% year-on-year.
• Non-purchase mortgage activity, which includes switching and top-ups, grew by 2.1% year on year in volume terms to 877 and by 4.6% year on year to €205 million in the same period.

Speaking on the publication of the data, Brian Hayes, Chief Executive, BPFI stated: “Our latest mortgage figures show that in January 2023 the value of approvals for property purchase increased by 10% year-on-year to €810 million. First-time buyers remain the largest segment in the mortgage market, accounting for more than half of the volume and value of approvals.

“In total, there were over 58,000 mortgage approvals (58,352) in the twelve months ending January 2023, valued at almost €16 billion (€15,935 million). This is the highest value of annualised mortgage approvals since our data series began in 2011 compared with €13.6 billion in the twelve months ending January 2021.”

“While the volume of non-purchase mortgages (switching and top-ups) rose by 2.1%, the figures indicate a significant slowdown in this segment from previous periods.”

The BPFI Mortgage Approval Report January 2023 is available here. 

The BPFI Mortgage Approvals report data series since January 2011 is available to download here.

BPFI