Home groans

Irish mortgage rates highest in the eurozone

IRISH banks continue to screw homeowners with the highest interest rates in Europe, official figures out yesterday showed.

The Central Bank report revealed the average interest rate issued on a new mortgage in July was 3.21%, a slight decrease on 3.23% in June.

But homeowners will be outraged to find out the average being paid on home loans across Europe is 1.77%.

This means the average first-time buyer who borrowed €250,000 over 30 years will pay €190 a month more than their European counterpart.

This equates to more than €68,000 extra over the lifetime of the mortgage, switching website bonkers.ie revealed.

Spokesman Daragh Cassidy said: “Despite the recent rate reductions from some of the main banks, Irish mortgage holders continue to pay more for their than any other country in the Eurozone, which is incredibly frustrating.

“With some of the banks still in majority state ownership, the Government needs to show its teeth and call the banks to account on this.

“A first-time buyer who takes out a mortgage of €250,000 in Ireland over 30 years would pay around €1,085 a month based on average rates.

“In Europe they would pay on average just over €895.” Brokers Ireland, which represents the 1,250 independent dealer firms, said there is no reason why mortgage holders here should be paying the highest average rate across the euro area.

The firm’s director of financial services, Rachel Mcgovern, said: “Whilst of late Irish lenders have been improving their fixed rate mortgage products, which is why there has been a big move in this direction, now at 63% of new agreements over the three months to July, Irish mortgage holders can fix for a maximum of 10 years while many of their European counterparts can fix for the entire term of the mortgage.” Ms Mcgovern added that the Irish mortgage market could do with some “healthy competition”.