Were the ECB rate to climb by 1 per cent than the additional costs for many mortgage holders would top €100 per month, and could see more than 3,000 more homeowners struggling to meet their repayments.ESRI researcher Conor O’Toole, who wrote the report, said the mortgage market here had “recovered considerably from the crisis, and households are better placed to deal with adverse shocks”.
He said many of the cohort with tracker mortgages would have paid off a substantial portion of their mortgages at this stage, and would have equity in their homes which would offer them a degree of protection against future shock. “Not only that but all of the loans issued since 2009 have been stressed tested by banks, who have looked very closely at how borrowers would handle a mortgage rate increase of 2 per cent above variable rates, so if those tests are to mean anything then they would mean people are protected against substantial rate increase.”