Bank of Ireland Extends 1% Stamp Duty offer to Movers and Introduces New ‘House-Hunter’ Mortgage Approval

1% Stamp Duty offer now extended to include movers as well as first time buyers

New ‘House-Hunter’ mortgage approval that allows customers search for the right home with their funding already in place

Tuesday, 3 June 2014, Bank of Ireland understands that Stamp Duty is a significant expense for anyone buying a new home. Its offer to refund first time buyers’ Stamp Duty to the value of 1% of their mortgage is proving extremely popular. So much so, that the Bank has today announced the expansion of the offer to movers (existing home owners seeking to move to another property). The offer is also extended to mortgages drawn down by 31 December 2014.

The 1% Stamp Duty offer is not capped. Based on an average Mover mortgage of €211,600 (IBF/PwC Mortgage Market Profile Q1 2014), it is worth more than €2,000 to the average mover customer.

Bank of Ireland’s 24-hour customer promise has now been rolled out to every one of its 250 branches in the Republic. Under this initiative, Bank of Ireland commits to getting back to customers about their mortgage application within 24 hours. “It includes a full credit assessment providing real approval that customers can act on, not just approval in principle,” said Aine McCleary, Bank of Ireland’s Head of Mortgages. “We know customers are very busy, and once they submit an application they want to know quickly that their application is approved. This is another example of where Bank of Ireland is different.”

Responding to customer feedback, Bank of Ireland has also launched ‘House-Hunter mortgage approval’ which will see customers approved for a mortgage amount before they have settled on a suitable property. House-Hunter mortgage approval is a fully underwritten offer letter which is valid for six months. Customers therefore can confidently proceed with the search for their new home.

“We are approving eight out of ten mortgage applications”, McCleary said. “We are listening to our customers and investing in further ways to make our mortgage process as easy as possible. We provide mortgages up to 90% of the property value which means customers need a minimum deposit of 10%. By February 2014, we had fully approved our €2 billion fund for First Time Buyer and Mover mortgage finance that we launched in October 2012 and we have a further €2 billion fund available to meet demand.”

“Bank of Ireland is open for mortgage lending through all of our channels. We have more than 500 professionally qualified mortgage advisors across our 250 branches nationwide, the largest network in the country, and over the phone. Our mobile mortgage managers are available to meet customers at a time and place that suits them, in their home or place of work, in the evenings or at the weekend and customers can start a mortgage application in minutes using a really easy form on our website.”

See bankofireland.com/mortgages for further information

ENDS