Surprise - Mortgage Lending is Down

This week, the Irish Bankers Federation published their Mortgage Market Profile. Unsuprisingly, the Irish mortgage market continues to contract. In my opinion there are two main reasons for this - (1) people are still deferring property-buying decisions due to fear / uncertainty / possibility of further price drops and (2) lending criteria has tightened so much that it's a lot harder to get approved for a mortgage than it was previously.

Here's an extract from the Press Release...

• 3,259 new mortgages issued in Q1 2011 to a value of €577 million
• Home purchasers continue to dominate the market


The IBF/PwC Mortgage Market Profile published today shows that 3,259 new mortgages to the value of €577 million were issued during the first quarter of 2011.

The volume of new lending is down 42% compared to the previous quarter and is down 53.1% on the previous year. While the seasonal pattern of mortgage lending typically results in a lower level of lending in the first three months of the year compared to other quarters, this more pronounced reduction in activity reflects the broader macroeconomic environment.

However, the key home purchaser segments of the market, First Time Buyers and Mover Purchasers, continue to dominate this smaller market. Together they now account for over 77% of the market by value and 67% by volume. In effect, more than three-quarters of all mortgage credit issued now goes to the home purchasing segments of the market.

Lenders generally continue to report subdued underlying demand for new mortgage finance. This has been influenced by uncertainty around macroeconomic developments, property price trends and future interest rate movements. At the same time, lenders continue to point to the need for prudent lending with the all-important focus on the borrower’s employment situation and capacity to repay.

Deposit Guarantee Scheme extended

The Department of Finance has announced that the Credit Institutions (Eligible Liabilities Guarantee) Scheme (the ‘ELG Scheme’) has been extended from its original end date of 29th September 2010 to 31st December 2010.

It's important to note that there are two deposit guarantee schemes in operation - the Deposit Guarantee Scheme, which covers all deposits up to €100,000 and does not have an end date and this ELG scheme which covers deposits in excess of €100,000 and has been extended to 31/12/2010.

It's also important to make sure you know if your own bank is part of either or both schemes. Not all banks operating in Ireland are part of both schemes and some are part of neither, as they participate in their own country's deposit guarantee scheme.

See the Department's press release here.

Feel free to talk to us about your deposits and their security. We are authorised to arrange deposit accounts and have attractive rates for demand, notice and fixed rate accounts for individuals, corporate customers, charities and pension funds.

Yes, policies do pay out.

I sometimes hear criticism levelled at the insurance industry in general that insurance companies will do their level best to wriggle out of paying claims. In my experience, a reputable insurance company won't attempt to wriggle out of a genuine claim, where the client has kept fully and honestltly to their side of the contract.

So I watch the actual claims statistics published by the various insurance companies with interest - not a ghoulish interest but rather as a reminder of what insurance is really all about.

In 2009 Irish Life paid out a quarter of a billion euro in death, specified illness and income protection claims to five thousand Irish Families. That's just one company, albeit a BIG one in terms of market share. But there's nearly a hundred families a week that were undoubtedly glad that they didn't reject the idea of insurance as a waste of money.

Permanent TSB raises variable mortgage rates

I see that Permanent TSB is set to raise its Standard Variable Rate for mortgages by 0.5% from next Monday, thus reversing the effect of some of the recent European Central Bank base rate cuts. They have blamed the high cost of funds and tightening margins in the lending market.

Even before this rate increase, Permanent TSB's Standard Variable Rate was nowhere near the most competitive in the market.

I sympathise with any Permanent TSB mortgage customer with a loan of more than 92% of their property's current value. Such customers (including those in negative equity) have no option but to remain with Permanent TSB.

Anyone below 92% at least have the option to move to another lender.

Permanent TSB service levels

I hear that Permanent TSB are currently processing mortgage applications with a delay of about sixteen days. In other words, if you send something to them in connection with a mortgage application today, it may well be the first or second week of April before it gets looked at.

If I assume that this is not because the property boom has suddenly restarted while I was sleeping, it's presumably because they cut staff numbers.

But in a time when there's less mortgage business to go around, wouldn't you think that it would make more sense to improve service to help win business, rather than go the other way?