New figures from Banking & Payments Federation Ireland show strong growth in mortgage approvals figures for October, driven by demand from first-time buyers.

The BPFI figures show that a total of 4,514 mortgages were approved in October . Of these 51.6% were for first-time buyers while mover purchasers accounted for 27%.

BPFI also said that the number of mortgages approved in October rose by 18% month-on-month and by 5.9% year-on-year.

Mortgages approved in October were valued at €1.020 billion. First time buyers accounted for €547m of this, while €308m were accounted for by mover purchasers.

The value of mortgage approvals rose by 22.5% on a monthly basis and by 9.7% on an annual basis.

Meanwhile, re-mortgage and or switching approvals rose by 17.1% in volume on the previous month and fell by 1.5% year on year.

