Both the residential and commercial property markets continue to fall dramatically, and there continues to be substantial reductions in the growth of mortgages in Ireland.

Only a year ago Brian Cowen was bringing us the following welcome news:

“In the Programme for Government, we signalled that the first time buyer – and recent purchasers – would benefit from further increases in the ceiling on mortgage interest relief.

“Today, I will honour the Government’s pledge by increasing the ceiling on mortgage interest relief for first time buyers by 2,000 for a single person and 4,000 for a married couple or widowed person to 10,000 and 20,000 respectively.

“This will increase the maximum monthly relief available by about 33 and 66 respectively, bringing it to 166 per month for a single person and 333 per month for a married couple or widowed person.

“These moves are appropriate in ensuring additional support for a hard pressed segment of the housing market and should provide the necessary direction and certainty.”

One thing is certain, the news will be very different today, and few can see a substantial increase in the number of mortgages in Ireland being taken out in the near future.

It will be interesting to see how the Minister decides to treat the different parties involved in the property and mortgage markets. While the general populace resents the amount of money made by property developers during the boom times and would be against giving them any further opportunties to make their fortunes, there must also be a realisation that the construction industry needs to get going again in order to minimise any further destruction to the number of those employed in Ireland.

Similarly, first time buyers will need to be encouraged to come back to the market. However, at a time when unemployment is on the increase, property prices are still falling, stock markets are in roller coaster mode, and taxes are being increased it will take a significant amount of work to encourage the first time buyers back into the market.

All of these factors point towards a difficult budget that is likely to have the effect of reducing the number of new mortgages in Ireland.

Michael Kelly is Managing Director of Mortgage Ireland Marketing Company Ridge Online Marketing. Ridge Consulting is focused on helping companies improve their online marketing visibility in Ireland. Further information mortgage-broker-ireland.com