First-time buyer mortgage approvals hit record as home movers fall back
Strong demand from new buyers continues, but lack of homes for sale is slowing overall mortgage activity
7 January 2026
Mortgage approvals for first-time buyers reached their highest level on record in 2025, underlining sustained demand for home ownership despite affordability pressures and constrained supply.
Data from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland shows 30,124 first-time buyer mortgages were approved between January and November 2025, the highest level since the series began in 2011. The total value of those approvals reached €9.8 billion, more than four times the €2.4 billion approved over the same period in 2015.
Overall, lenders approved 49,760 mortgages in the first 11 months of the year, with a combined value of €15.8 billion. First-time buyers accounted for around six in every ten approvals, reinforcing their dominant position in the market.
By contrast, mortgage approvals for people moving home fell to their lowest level in a decade. Just 9,634 mover-purchase loans were approved over the same period, the weakest year-to-date figure since 2015. While volumes declined, the value of mover mortgages rose to more than €3.6 billion, the highest on record, reflecting higher house prices.
Monthly figures point to the same supply-driven constraints. In November, 4,251 mortgages were approved, down 11 per cent on October and 3.4 per cent lower than the same month a year earlier. First time buyers accounted for 2,512 of those approvals. Banking industry data attributes the monthly fall primarily to a shortage of new and second-hand homes available for purchase, rather than a weakening in underlying demand.
House price inflation continues to shape borrowing levels. Property firm DNG reports that second-hand house prices rose across all regions in 2025, with national growth strongest in the midwest at 9.9 per cent. Outside Dublin, the average second-hand home increased by 7.4 per cent last year, following an 8.4 per cent rise in 2024.
In Dublin, price growth slowed to 5.2 per cent in 2025, compared with 9.6 per cent the previous year. The average resale price in the capital now stands at just over €613,000. DNG expects prices in Dublin to rise by a further 3 to 4 per cent this year, with stronger growth outside the capital due to continued shortages of homes available to private buyers.
For prospective buyers, borrowing conditions remain mixed. While interest rates remain relatively low, some non-bank lenders have begun increasing fixed-rate mortgage products, adding to cost pressures at a time when food, energy and other household expenses remain elevated. Consumer price inflation stood at 2.7 per cent in the year to December, according to the latest EU-harmonised estimate from the CSO.
Taken together, the data points to a housing market where demand, particularly from first- time buyers, continues to outstrip supply. For many households, the challenge is no longer access to mortgage approval, but finding a home to buy within an increasingly competitive and expensive market.
