Ireland had the second highest mortgage interest rates across the euro area in December, coming only after Greece, new figures from the Central Bank show.
The Central Bank said the average interest rate on new mortgages in Ireland stood at 2.76% in December, compared to the euro area average of 1.29%, although the rate varied considerably across countries.
Today's figures show that the weighted average interest rate on new fixed rate mortgage agreements remained at 2.67% in December.
Fixed rate mortgages accounted for over 80% of new mortgage deals in December, the Central Bank noted.
Meanwhile, new variable rate mortgage agreements saw a weighted average interest rate of 3.21% in December, a decrease of 11 basis points from the previous month.
The Central Bank said the volume of new mortgage agreements amounted to €955m in December - the highest monthly volume since the series began.
This represents an increase of 15% on December 2019 and a 16% rise when compared with the previous month.
The Central Bank said the high levels of agreements in December is in contrast to the low levels of activity seen over the Summer months.
The volume of new mortgage agreements for June, July and August of last year was 35% lower than the corresponding period in 2019, it added.
Today's Cental Bank figures also show that new consumer lending agreements stood at €107m in December - down 25% on the previous year.
The average interest rate on consumer loans was 7.72% compared to the equivalent euro area rate of 5.07%.
Rachel McGovern, Director of Financial Services at Brokers Ireland, welcomed the fact that Ireland no longer has the highest mortgage rates across the eurozone.
She said the data also shows the growing demand for mortgages.
"This contrasts with the much lower activity across the Summer months," she said.
"It is evidence of the strong underlying demand for mortgages and may well have been prompted by a realisation that property prices weren’t going to see predictions of a large drop in house prices resulting from the pandemic realised."
Meanwhile, interest rates on new household term deposits remained at 0.02% in December compared to a rate of 0.22% in the rest of the euro area.
