Irish loans for house purchase increase by €63 million

The Central Bank of Ireland’s latest money and banking latest statistics from July 2018 indicate that loans to households for house purchase increased by €63 million on a net basis in July. The annual growth rate continues to trend upwards, rising to 0.8 per cent in July, representing the ninth consecutive month of positive growth. This is the fastest pace of annual growth since February 2010.

Other key developments in household credit and deposits include:

• Loans to households, adjusted for loan sales and securitisations, declined by 1.4 per cent in annual terms to end-July.
• Mortgage loans, increased by €63 million on a net basis in July, its second consecutive monthly increase. Over the past number of years, quarter-end monthly figures have been positively affected by technical factors. July is the first non quarter-end month to record a net monthly rise since late 2012, another indicator that mortgage credit is returning to positive growth.
• In year-on-year terms, net mortgage lending rose by €617 million or 0.8 per cent. This represents the ninth consecutive month of positive year-on-year growth and the fastest rate of growth since February 2010.
• Non-housing loans decreased by 0.4 per cent or €62 million in annual terms to end-July. However, lending for consumption purposes, the largest component of   non-housing loans, grew by €132 million annually.
• Total outstanding household deposits edged back from last month’s record high to €102 billion in July. Household deposits declined by €27 million, ending seven months of consecutive net increases. Annually, household deposit lodgements were €3.3 billion higher than withdrawals, resulting in growth of 3.4 per cent. This annual growth was driven by overnight deposits, all other deposit maturity categories declined on an annual basis.
• Developments in loans and deposits mean that Irish households continued to be net funders of the Irish banking system. Banks held €11.2 billion more in household deposits than loans at end-July, with the loan-to-deposit ratio standing at 0.89.