![\"Christine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ec9e8a8b-ff6a-4713-8b57-fddff450e84c.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt comes as the European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to hike its lending rates by 0.25 of a percentage point next month.<\/p>\n
The average rate was 3.52pc for a new mortgage in this country in March, up from 3.51pc the previous month and from 3.50pc in January, according to the Central Bank.<\/p>\n
The higher rates come after two small, non-bank lenders increased their new fixed rates, with markets expecting a rate rise next month from the ECB.<\/p>\n
Lenders would be likely to pass on higher ECB rates to borrowers in the form of higher mortgage rates.<\/p>\n
In the past few weeks both ICS Mortgages and Nua Money increased their fixed rates for new customers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank. Photo: Bloomberg<\/p>\n
News in 90 seconds – Wednesday, May 13<\/p>\n
Average mortgage rates across the Eurozone were calculated at 3.4pc in March, similar to the previous month.<\/p>\n
Rates range from as low as 2.44pc in Bulgaria to as high as 4.12pc in Latvia, the Central Bank of Ireland said.<\/p>\n
Brokers said there are wide variations in mortgage rates on the market in this country.<\/p>\n
An analysis by Bonkers.ie shows that they range from 3.85pc to 4.99pc for a three-year fixed for a first-time buyer couple borrowing \u20ac300,000 with a 10pc deposit.<\/p>\n
Variable rates range from 3.85pc to 4.70pc, broker Bonkers.ie said.<\/p>\n
Daragh Cassidy, head of communications at Bonkers.ie, said: \u201cIrish mortgage rates, at least with the main banks, have remained fairly steady over the past few months.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we could see the ECB hike rates in response to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East as soon as June, and this could lead to a hike in mortgage rates later in the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said ICS Mortgages and Nua Money, two of the smaller lenders in the market, have both already increased their fixed rates for new customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Avant Money\u2019s tracker-like variable rate, which tracks a key lending rate called the Euribor, has gone up by over half a percentage point.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the last energy crisis following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, the ECB increased rates by a massive 4.5 percentage points in a very short space of time.<\/p>\n
Mr Cassidy said another hike of this scale is highly unlikely, but the ECB can, and will, act on rates if it feels inflation is getting out of control again.<\/p>\n
He said anyone on a fixed rate is protected for now as their rate won\u2019t change until the end of the fixed term.<\/p>\n
But those on variable rates would be wise to assess their options.<\/p>\n
And anyone rolling off a fixed rate over the coming months should start assessing their options now too, Mr Cassidy said.<\/p>\n
There are thousands of mortgage customers who took out fixed rates as low as under 2pc three or four years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are now coming to an end and these customers can expect a big hike in their repayments when they come to re-fix, especially if they don’t compare all the options on the market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It comes as the European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to hike its lending rates by 0.25 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,3361,61,60,3362],"class_list":["post-446812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-charlie-weston","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-money-experts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}