Key Post Briefing: Irish mortgage rates are almost 2% higher than the Eurozone average!

[Brendan Burgess]

You'd imagine that the boys in RTE and the Sindo etc, with all their researchers, expertise, and investigative finance would be the ones to be breaking these types of story.

Hi Bronte

The really odd thing about this story is that it was staring everyone in the face.

The CB produces monthly statistics and a press release stating boldly "The average rate for new mortgage business in Ireland is 3.15%, which is around 0.5% more than the average rate across the Eurozone"

Any journalist who read this should have said "Wait a minute. I thought that the rate for new mortgage business in Ireland was higher than this?"

Apparently a few did, and were fobbed off by the press office in the Central Bank.

But as I compile the rates in a Key Post, I was not going to be fobbed off by them and Charlie Weston was very annoyed that they had fobbed him off, so he took up the story with great enthusiasm.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi jath



While the ECB rate is the lowest ever, the Standard Variable Mortgage Rate was as low as 3% up to a few years ago.

Not sure if the error is the journalist's or Davy's.

I have emailed the journalist Peter O'Dwyer. Let me know if they follow up on it.

Brendan

 

[rodger]

Irish banks may be allowed to sell tracker mortgages to ECB

Is there any update on this?

This is the work by Brian Hayes MEP to help the banks to offload the trackers

This for me is the solution to the high SVR problem in this country.

(because as we all know non-tracker customers are subsidising tracker customers)

 

[hughes]

I telephoned the new competition authority and they confirmed that Brian Hayes MEP has written to them on SVR issue. .As yet no response.