Almost two-thirds of mortgage approvals are for first-time-buyers

A total of 4,559 mortgages were approved in May, up 7.5pc year-on-year.

The number of approvals made last month rose just 2.5pc from April’s levels.

The BPFI reported that 2,844 first-time-buyer mortgages were approved last month, accounting for 62.4pc of the total.

This was down 10.3pc in volume from a year earlier. However, BPFI attributed this decline to the fact that May 2023 was the strongest month on record for first-time-buyer approvals.

May 2024 recorded the fourth highest level of these approvals since BPFI began the data series.

The BPFI described the first-time buyer activity as “robust”. Activity from first-time buyers has risen as a result of government programmes such as the Help-to-Buy and the First Home shared-equity schemes.

There were also 980 “mover mortgages” in May, which represented 21.5pc of the total number.

Although overall activity levels remain at “historically high levels”, BPFI pointed to a continued slowdown in the number of mover mortgages.

Around 10,770 approvals for mover mortgages were made in the past year. This was the lowest level of mover purchase volumes since the year to the end of November 2020.

“This has ongoing implications for the supply of second-hand homes to the market which has been shrinking in recent months according to industry sources,” BPFI chief executive Brian Hayes said.

Re-mortgage and switching activity was up by 1.2pc in volume terms year-on-year but was down 3.3pc in value in the same period.

May mortgages were valued at €1.4bn in total, according to the report. More than 49,000 mortgages have been approved in the year ended May 2024, with these mortgages valued at more than €14.1bn.

Activity over the summer is set to grow, the BPFI reported.

“The three months between May and July is a key period for mortgage approvals, traditionally accounting for 28-30pc of approvals during the year, so we would expect to see strong approval activity for the next couple of months,” Mr Hayes said.

The latest Residential Property Price Index, published by the Central Statistics Office, revealed prices rose 7.9pc in the year to April 2024.

Values in Dublin were up 8.3pc, with prices across the rest of the country rising 7.6pc.

The median price of a home bought in the period was €335,000.