The latest mortgage market profile published by the Irish Banking Federation and consultants PwC says 3,983 new mortgages to the value of €663m were issued during the third quarter of 2012. That’s a 24% rise on the same period of last year in terms of number of new loans and a 27% rise in value terms.

The number of new mortgages being originated by Irish banks is still down at levels not seen since the early 1970s however. Despite the 24% rise the number of new home loans is still likely to come in just ahead of the 11,000 new homeloans extended in 1971 and below the 15,000 in 1972. At the peak of the property market, in 2006, more than 54,000 mortgages with a total value just short of €11 billion were issued in the third quarter alone. Rachel Doyle, chief operating officer of the Professional Insurance Brokers’ Association, said it was to be welcomed that the home loan figures over the past three months had rebounded from the near historic lows of last year. She said, however, it was too early to say whether they indicated “the beginning of a policy of defrosting in lending”.
Separate research published by consultants DKM and the Educational Building Society (EBS) suggested the cost of funding a home purchase for first time buyers has fallen. The figures suggest the cost of funding a mortgage nationally on a home for a working couple buying their first home stands at 11.7% of their joint disposable income. In October 2011 the figure stood at 12.8%. It has more than halved since 2006.