A total of 4,362 mortgages valued at €1,089 million were approved in April 2021; highest value for April since BPFI started collecting this data in 2011

1^st June 2021 – Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has today published the latest figures from the BPFI Mortgage Approvals Report for April 2021. The following are the key elements:

• A total of 4,362 mortgages were approved in April 2021 – first-time buyers (FTBs) were approved for 2,389 mortgages (54.8% of total volume) while mover purchasers accounted for 1,013 (23.2%).
• The number of mortgages approved rose by 0.9% month-on-month and by 98.3% compared with the same period last year.
• Mortgages approved in April 2021 were valued at €1,089 million – of which FTBs accounted for €600 million (55%) and mover purchasers for €297 million (27.3%).
• The value of mortgage approvals rose by 2.4% month-on-month and by 107.5% year-on-year.
• On an annualised* basis 46,131 mortgage were approved in the twelve months ending April 2021, valued at €11,246 million.

Speaking on the latest figures, Brian Hayes, Chief Executive, BPFI said: “April was another strong month for mortgage approvals, especially for first-time-buyers. Compared with April last year, when the country was experiencing its first lockdown, there has been a doubling of activity across most mortgage categories during April 2021. It is important we look at the figures in the context of how different those two lockdowns have been and take into account how well lenders and customers have adapted in the intervening 12 months to working within Level 5 restrictions.”

“To get a more reliable picture of the trends which the data is highlighting, we can look to the annualised figures* which show there were 46,131 mortgage approvals in the twelve months ending April 2021, valued at €11.2 billion. Significantly this was the highest value since our mortgage approvals data series began in 2011. This was driven mainly by FTB approvals, which jumped to almost €6.2 billion in the twelve months ending April 2021, up 5.9% on the twelve months ending March 2021. This was also more than double the level in the twelve months ending October 2016 (€3 billion). These trends point to a solid pipeline for drawdown activity later in the year.”

BPFI