Irish mortgage rates continue to move lower while deposit rates remain broadly steady, according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Ireland today.
At 4.03% in October, the average mortgage rate in Ireland is now at its lowest level in almost a year and a half.
The Eurozone average fell to 3.52%. However rates varied hugely across the currency bloc as they have done for years from as low as 1.77% in Malta to as high as 4.89% in Latvia.
Ireland currently has the sixth highest rates in the Eurozone, the same as the previous month.
However 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 average fixed deposit rate remained largely unchanged at 2.64%, slightly below the Eurozone average of 2.73%.
Daragh Cassidy of bonkers.ie has been reacting to the news:
"Although Irish mortgage rates continue to move lower, they’re falling more slowly in Ireland compared to the rest of the Eurozone. There is now a half a percentage point gap between the average rate here in Ireland and the average rate in the Eurozone, which you’d hope isn’t going to get any bigger.
"Attention now turns to what the ECB will do at its final monetary policy meeting of the year tomorrow. A quarter point cut is almost a given with a small chance of a bigger half-point cut.
"Either way, the ECB is likely to continue to cut rates into next year as long as inflation remains under control and its key policy rate could potentially fall to close to 2% from 3.25% right now.
"This will feed through into even lower mortgage rates in Ireland over the coming months. Tracker customers will benefit the most. But so too will the so-called mortgage prisoners whose loans were sold to vulture funds and some of whom are still paying extortionate variable rates as high as 7% or more right now.
"However, it's not all good news. There are losers to falling interest rates too. Deposit rates are likely to start falling too. Online banks Revolut and N26 have both already cut their rates - the latter twice. Though there has been little movement from the main banks so far.
"Irish households currently have almost €160 billion resting on deposit. But the majority of the money is still in accounts that pay little to no interest. So I’d really encourage people with savings to lock into the higher rates while they’re still available. Both AIB and Bank of Ireland are still offering up to 3% interest, while rates over 3% are still on offer through the online savings platform Raisin as well as with Dutch bank Bunq."
