Mortgage rates fall to lowest level in more than a year

Mortgage rates in Ireland have reached the lowest point in almost a year and a half at 4.03%.

This is down from 4.27% for the same time last year, and leaves Ireland with the sixth highest mortgage rates in the Eurozone - who have an average rate of 3.52%.

The Central Bank figures for Ireland show the average variable rate was 4.39%, while the average fixed rate stood at 3.89%.

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The gap between Irish rates and the average Eurozone rate continues to increase and is now at its widest level in over two years, the Central Bank figures show. Rates vary from as low as 1.77% in Malta to as high as 4.89% in Latvia.

Today's Central Bank figures also show that the total volume of new mortgage agreements increased from €930m in September to €1.1 billion in October. This marked a 16% increase in monthly terms and a 28% rise from October 2023.

For savers, the average fixed deposit rate remained largely unchanged at 2.64 %, slightly below the Eurozone average of 2.73%.

The new figures come ahead of an expected cut of 0.25 percentage points in European Central Bank rates tomorrow. Some analysts think the ECB may even opt for a 0.5 points cut in rates.

Any cut will directly benefit almost 130,000 people on tracker mortgages, and may see new fixed rates come down again.