Mortgage approvals for first-time buyers reach record-breaking levels
The number of first-time buyer mortgage approvals is at its highest level on record.
First-time buyers now make up almost 60% of new loans – three times the amount of people moving home at 20% – while the rest are investors and people who are topping up their mortgages.
However, the overall number of mortgages approved fell by 3.4% compared with a year ago, according to the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).
More than 30,000 loans valued at almost €10bn were approved for first-time buyers in the 11 months to the end of November out of a total of 49,760 mortgages approved worth €15.8bn.
Brian Hayes, BPFI chief, said: “Our latest report reveals that there were 4,251 mortgage approvals in November 2025 with overall values at almost €1.4bn.”
He said approval volumes were down by 3.4% compared with November 2024 with values down by 0.8%.
The most notable slowdown was in home-purchase mortgage approvals, including those for first-time buyers and mover-purchasers, which experienced a reduction of 6.8% in volume and 3.5% in value.
The value of mortgages approved in November was €1.354bn.
First-time buyers made up around 60% – €822m – of this, with mover-purchasers accounting for 24%, at €323m.
However, the total value fell by 0.8%. Re-mortgage/switching activity rose by more than 19% in volume and by 25% in value over the same period.
Of 4,251 mortgages approved in November, first-time buyers made up 2,512 – almost 60% – while mover-purchasers accounted for 863, or just over 20%.
Mr Hayes added: “Looking more broadly at the 11-month period to the end of November 2025, there were 49,760 mortgage approvals, amounting to €15.8bn.”
First-time buyer approvals were at their highest levels since data collection began in 2011 with over 30,000 approvals of almost €10bn – more than four times the value of approvals in the same period in 2015 at €2.432bn.
But loans for people moving house plummeted.
Mr Hayes said: “Mover-purchase approval volumes dropped to 9,634 – the lowest year-to-date level since 2015.
“Nevertheless, values rose to more than €3.6bn over the same period, the highest year-to-date values since the data series began.”
Mr Hayes said mortgage-switching activity continued to grow with more than 5,900 switcher approvals valued at over €1.7bn in the first 11 months of 2025 – “an increase of 35.7% in volume and 55.1% in value on the same period of 2024, and the highest year-to-date activity levels since 2022”.
Brian Hayes, CEO of BPFI. (Pic: RollingNews.ie)
The surge in approvals without a strong level of new-home completions was pushing up prices, warned David Hall, of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (IMHO), adding: “People complain some Government products are pushing up the price of property.
“No one needs external forces to push up prices; the lack of supply is doing that.
“People are getting loan approval and in desperation are outbidding themselves and other people, so there’s huge pressure on people to get in the marketplace and again it’s back to a lack of affordable homes.”
