ARM option mortgages in Ireland?

Do any of the bankers or mortgage brokers know if 'arm option mortgages' or equivalent type mortages have ever been available in Ireland? in e.g the last decade?

arm options are quite popular in the states.

You mean this ARM? Never heard of anything like that on the Irish market.

thats it clubman..yes they are very popular in the states....

what is the closest product offering to this in Ireland??

Smiley - Could you summarise the benefits in simple English? The Wikipedia link doesn't enlighten me very much.

Is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage not the American word for what we call a tracker?

Irish trackers track either the ECB rate or the Euribor rate.

Brendan

dave...as far as i understand, in plain english..you take out a mortgage say for 20 years, but you have the option for the first e.g five years to pay very little of your mortgage, but when day 1 of year 6 arrives, suddenly your mortgage payment jumps very substantially.

so for arguments sake...you are quite comfortable paying your $900 per month for the first five years and then suddenly your payments go up to $3500 per month...

large amounts of these seem to have been sold in the usa, perhaps a bit too easily, and a good proportion are heading for that year 6 higher payment in the next year or two.

We've had subprime, but this could be act 2 in the us financial crisis.

My main point for bringing up this topic is that i hope these sort of mortgages were not available in ireland, and that 100% mortgages (excl tiny subprime market here) were probably the nearest thing to these sort of loans (yet still far apart).

It sounds a bit like going interest-only on your mortgage for the first five years, then reverting to annuity. Or perhaps the "low-start" options that some lenders have offered.

Based purely on anecdotal evidence, I don't think Ireland would have a huge exposure to either.

They sound quite similar to those type of loans you mention Liam.

As regards Ireland, thats good to hear liam, thanks. They seem to have quite a lot of exposure in the states. Probably will be act II of this fiasco.
Could be a bumpy ride, but their economy will pull through.