ICS has become the latest Irish mortgage provider to increase its variable rates in response to rising borrowing costs generally.
The move is expected to be followed by other mortgage providers, heaping further financial pressure on households here. So far most of the main lenders have not changed their variable rates in response to the European Central Bank’s half-point hike in July. Frankfurt is expected to opt for further half-point increase next month as it battles to tame record inflation across the bloc.
Buy-to-let variable rates will increase across LTV bands by half a percentage point, it said, rising from 3.75 per cent to 4.25 per cent in the case of LTVs of less than 60 per cent. Earlier this month it capped the size of new home loans it was prepared to approve at just 2½ times a borrower’s income, as well as introducing more onerous loan-to-value restrictions for both first-time buyers and those trading up. It also lowered the maximum loan size it was prepared to consider and set minimum income limits for applicants — €50,000 for a single person and €100,000 for a couple.