Cool reception for new mortgage rules

Editors note: Cash buyers and landlords will be the only beneficiaries of the mortgage lending cap, according to industry insiders

The highly anticipated, and perhaps dreaded, Central Bank decision on mortgage caps was finally announced last week to a mixed reaction from the property sector. PIBA, the financial brokers umbrella group, warned the new regulations would bring about “behavioural and cultural changes”, which, if I’m not mistaken, is exactly what the Central Bank set out to achieve.

It was precisely borrowers’ (and financial lenders’) audacious and reckless financial conduct in an overheated property ...