Mortgage activity remains strong with drawdowns up over 10% in volume and almost 20% in value in Q1 2025
- Mortgage drawdowns rose in volume by 10.3% and in value by 19.1% year-on-year
- Average home mortgage drawdown value reached €327,972, the highest level on record
- Switching activity grew strongly, with volumes up by 18.7%
- Home mortgage approvals reached highest annualised value on record at €13.8 billion
Tuesday 29th April 2025 – Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has today published the latest figures from the BPFI Mortgage Drawdowns Report for Q1 2025 and the BPFI Mortgage Approvals Report for March 2025.
The following are the key figures from the Mortgage Drawdowns Report for Q1 2025:
- A total of 9,190 new mortgages to the value of €2,807 million were drawn down by borrowers during the first quarter of 2025.
- This represents an increase of 10.3% in volume and 19.1% in value on the corresponding first quarter of 2024.
- A comparison with the previous quarter (Q4 2024) shows decreases of 29.4% in volume and 28.9% in value.
- First-time buyers (FTBs) remained the single largest segment by volume (57.8%) and by value (59.1%).
- Re-mortgage/switching volumes and values increased by 18.7% and 30.6% year on year respectively.
In addition, BPFI also published today the latest figures from the BPFI Mortgage Approvals Report for March 2025:
- A total of 4,492 mortgages were approved in March 2025 – some 2,736 were for FTBs (60.9% of total volume), while mover purchasers accounted for 848 (18.9%).
- The number of mortgages approved in March rose by 31.3% month-on-month and by 18.9% year-on-year.
- Mortgages approved in March 2025 were valued at €1,428 million – of which FTBs accounted for €891 million (62.4%) and €322 million by mover purchasers (22.5%).
- The value of mortgage approvals rose by 32.5% month-on-month and by 29.7% year-on-year.
- Re-mortgage/switching activity rose by 77.1% year on year in volume terms and by 100.4% in value in the same period.
Speaking on the publication of the reports, Brian Hayes, Chief Executive, BPFI said: “Our latest data shows that mortgage activity remains strong with 9,190 mortgage drawdowns in Q1 2025, valued at €2,807 million. This represents a rise in volume of 10.3% year on year and of 19.1% in value over the same period. In fact, all mortgage customer segments grew year on year with first-time buyer (FTB) and mover purchase mortgage drawdown values reaching their highest Q1 levels since 2007 and 2008, respectively. Switching activity also grew strongly in Q1 2025, with switcher mortgage volumes increasing by 18.7% year on year to 1,166. This accounted for 12.7% of all drawdown volumes, the highest share since Q1 2023.”
Mr Hayes continued: “Meanwhile, reflecting trends in housing prices, the average home mortgage (FTB and mover purchase combined) drawdown value reached its highest level on record at €327,972 in Q1 2025. This was driven by significant increases in average drawdowns on secondhand homes. The average FTB mortgage on secondhand properties exceeded €300,000 for the first time, increasing by 9.7% year on year to €302,018, more than double the average drawdown in Q1 2014. The average mover purchase mortgage on secondhand properties increased by 9.6% to a new high of €370,790.”
Looking at the most recent mortgage approval figures, Mr Hayes added: “There were 52,021 mortgage approvals in the twelve months ending March 2025, valued at €15,841 million. Of this, the annualised value of home mortgage approvals reached the highest level since the data series began at more than €13.8 billion in the same period. FTB approval volumes also reached their highest level since the data series began with 31,759 mortgages valued at almost €9.9 billion (€9,895 million).”
The BPFI Mortgage Drawdowns Q1 2025 report is available to download here.
The BPFI Mortgage Approvals March 2025 report is available to download here.
Ends/
Data Series:
Mortgage drawdown data from Q1 2005 onwards is available in Microsoft Excel XLS format in the BPFI Mortgage Drawdowns report data series. Download the BPFI Mortgage Drawdowns Report time series here.
All mortgage approvals data from January 2011 onwards is available in Microsoft Excel format (*.xls) in the BPFI Mortgage Approvals report data series. The BPFI Mortgage Approvals report data series is available to download here.
Note: Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) represents the banking, payments and fintech sector in Ireland. Together with its affiliates, the Federation of International Banks in Ireland, and the Fintech & Payments Association of Ireland, BPFI has over 120 member institutions and associates.
