{"id":492862,"date":"2026-06-10T18:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/492862\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:06:16","slug":"average-cost-of-irish-mortgage-drops-to-just-above-euro-area-average-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/492862\/","title":{"rendered":"Average cost of Irish mortgage drops to just above euro area average \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The average cost of Irish mortgages<\/a> came down marginally in April and is now just above the euro area average, new data from the Central Bank<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n

The average interest rate on new mortgage agreements was down two basis points from March to 3.5 per cent. The equivalent euro area average was 3.45 per cent. <\/p>\n

Sorcha Timoney, mortgage team manager with NFP Ireland, said competition among lenders in Ireland is \u201cstarting to have a real effect\u201d.<\/p>\n

The annual decrease of the average interest rate on new mortgage agreements was 22 basis points, which was the third largest decrease in the euro area. The rate is now the 10th highest in the euro area, down five places compared to last year.<\/p>\n

The average interest rate on new fixed rate mortgages, which constitute 92 per cent of the volume \u2013 up from 81 per cent in April 2025 \u2013 was 3.45 per cent, down one basis point from the previous month and down 10 basis points on an annual basis.<\/p>\n

The share of new mortgage agreements that had fixed rates was 92 per cent, which was the highest since February 2023 when the share reached 93 per cent during the early phase of the European Central Bank (ECB)<\/a> rate hiking cycle.<\/p>\n

The average interest rate on new variable mortgages was 4.13 per cent in April, which was up eight basis points from March and 32 basis points lower in annual terms.<\/p>\n

The total volume of new mortgage agreements fell by \u20ac20 million or two per cent to \u20ac884 million. Renegotiated mortgages totalled \u20ac461 million, which was \u20ac47 million lower than the previous month and \u20ac225 million higher than April last year.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0What are the best mortgage options in Ireland right now?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Fixed rate mortgages constituted 93 per cent of renegotiated mortgages. The average rate was 3.28 per cent, which was an increase of two basis points from the previous month and a decrease of 18 basis points from the same month last year.<\/p>\n

Irish Mortgage Advisors chairman Trevor Grant said borrowers need to be mindful there could be a limit to the extent to which the cost of Irish mortgages will fall in the future, if at all.<\/p>\n

\"\"David McRedmond: \u2018O\u2019Connell Street needs high density housing\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cIf, as expected, the ECB hikes its rate tomorrow, this will mark a significant shift in ECB policy as it will be the first rate increase in almost three years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could be an opportune time for borrowers to fix their mortgage, if they have not yet done so. If considering fixing, it would be worth doing so quickly so that you lock your mortgage in ahead of any potential fixed rate rises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the average interest rate on new consumer loan agreements increased by 10 basis points to 7.08 per cent. The total volume of new consumer loans was \u20ac284 million, 68 per cent of which had a floating rate. <\/p>\n

New floating rate consumer loans had an average interest rate of 7.97 per cent, while new fixed rate consumer loans had an average interest rate of 5.17 per cent.<\/p>\n

The average interest rate on household overnight deposits stood at 0.14 per cent, unchanged from the previous month. The rate on new household deposits with agreed maturity was also unchanged at 1.85 per cent, but down 10 basis points annually.<\/p>\n

The level of new business in this category was \u20ac1.5 billion, which was 10 per cent lower than in March and 20 per cent higher than in April last year.<\/p>\n

Brokers Ireland deputy chief executive Rachel McGovern said savings rates remain \u201catrociously poor\u201d on overnight deposits in which people hold more than \u20ac149 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs inflation grows savers are increasingly losing value by leaving their savings in such poor value products,\u201d she said. \u201cInflation rose to 3.7 per cent in the 12 months to April, up from 3.6 per cent in March and 2.7 per cent in February, eroding value.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average cost of Irish mortgages came down marginally in April and is now just above the euro…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,4505,113,12965,61,5232,60,16487],"class_list":["post-492862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-central-bank","tag-economy","tag-european-central-bank-ecb","tag-ie","tag-interest-rates","tag-ireland","tag-mortgages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492862","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=492862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}