Ireland mortgage lending rises 15.7% in Q3 2026
Irish mortgage drawdowns hit €4,598 million in the third quarter, up 15.7% on a year earlier, with first-time buyers taking 58.3% of the money.
The facts
- Irish borrowers drew down 14,217 mortgages worth €4,598 million in the third quarter of 2026; the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland published the figures on 23 October.
- Volume was up 13.1% and value +15.7% on the third quarter of 2025; against the second quarter of 2026, volume rose 20.5% and value 22.7%.
- First-time buyers were the largest segment, at 57.4% of volume and 58.3% of value, and their 8,164 drawdowns were the highest third-quarter figure since 2008.
- Switching and re-mortgage drawdowns reached 2,214 loans worth €694 million, up 41.7% in volume and 50.9% in value year on year.
- Across the first nine months of 2026 there were 35,449 drawdowns worth almost €11.4 billion, 8.2% more loans and 12% more money than a year earlier.
What it means for your money
- Credit is growing faster than supply, so bids in the entry segment get harder. Entry prices are likelier to rise than to fall.
- Glopra's data puts the Irish city-centre asking price at $4,827.50 per square metre and the asking rent at $35.45 per square metre a month, so this lending wave lands on an already stretched entry level.
- If you already hold Irish property, the usable part is switching: value up 50.9% in a year means lenders are competing for existing loans, which is a rate cut without selling.
What to watch
- Monthly approvals run about three months ahead of drawdowns; if approvals keep climbing, fourth-quarter competition stays this tight.
- Drawdowns measure credit, not prices: the price read is the residential property price index of the Central Statistics Office, published separately.
Sources: BPFI https://bpfi.ie/publications/mortgage-drawdowns-q3-2026/