DUBLIN: According to the Central Bank’s latest survey, Ireland and Greece had the highest mortgage interest rates across Europe in November. The average new mortgage rate in Ireland is more than double the average for the eurozone which was 1.31% in November.
Despite the Avant Money offering prices, the constant high cost of mortgages in Ireland is as low as 1.95 per% for those with a lot of equity in their homes. High-rate borrowers have €2,000 more per year than the average cost across the eurozone.
Darag Cassidy of price comparison site Bonkers.ie said the average number of first-time buyers in the country is nearly €225,000. This means that anyone who has borrowed this amount for more than 30 years spends more than €167 a month or more than €2,000 a year compared to European neighbours.
Mr Cassidy said it is difficult to accept that rates here should be more than double the eurozone average, and that he was disappointed that they were not falling further.
At the same time, he added that the arrival of Avant money into the market does not seem to have affected the rates much so far.
Meanwhile, the banks claimed that they could not lower their rates to the levels of France and Germany because they had to set aside more money than lenders in other European countries when issuing new mortgages.