There has been an increase in new mortgages being issued to buy homes in the 2nd quarter of the year.

The rise in homeloans issued to first-time buyers and ‘mover-purchasers’ between April and June is the first of its kind on a year-on-year basis since 2006.

The latest Mortgage Market Profile by the Irish Banking Federation and PriceWaterhouse Coopers shows €524 million worth of new mortgages were issued during the 3 month period.

That is up more than 1/5 on the 1st quarter of this year.

Chief Economist with Goodbody is Dermot O’Leary.

He says though the increase is welcome sustainability is still a long way off.

And he believes that while the number of mortgages has increased their value is continuing to drop.