The number of mortgage drawdowns has fallen year-on-year for the first time since 2020.
Just under 10,000 new mortgages - to the value of €2,762 million - were drawn down during the second quarter of 2023.
It's a 17% drop in volume compared to the same period last year - according to the latest data from the Banking and Payments Federation.
First-time buyers (FTBs) remained the largest cohort at just over 60%.
A total of 4,766 mortgages were approved in June 2023, 3,013 were for FTBs (63%), while mover purchasers accounted for 1,094 transactions (23%).
Brian Hayes, Chief Executive, BPFI said the latest figures show demand in the housing market is still strong.
"9,896 new mortgages, to the value of almost €2.8 billion, were drawn down by borrowers during the second quarter of 2023.
"However overall, we can see mortgage drawdown volumes fell on a year-on-year basis (down 17.4%) for the first time since the slowdown at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
"While much of the decline reflects much lower levels of switching (down 63.8% year-on-year), first-time buyer mortgages fell year-on-year (by 0.4%) for the first time since 2020.”
