Bank of Ireland has become the latest mortgage lender to announce cuts in its mortgage lending rates.
The bank is trimming its fixed rates by 0.5% for new and existing customers.
Those with homes that have a Building Energy Rating of A to G will all benefit.
The cut takes effect from today.
“Offering value to our customers is important so this 0.50% cut is being applied to our full suite of fixed rate products,” said Alan Hartley, director of homebuying at Bank of Ireland.
“These reduced rates are available to all new and existing customers from today and they apply all the way up and down the BER scale, not just to those homes with the best energy ratings.”
The bank said the reductions mean that a 4-year fixed rate is available at 3.1%, depending on the BER.
This would result in an annual saving of around €1,000 on a €300,000 mortgage when compared to the previous 4-year fixed rates.
A new 1-year fixed rate product starting at 3.3% for mortgages of €250,000 and over is also being introduced.
However, while it is lowering its mortgage rates, the bank is also getting rid of its 24-month fixed term deposit account, which carried and Annual Equivalent Rate (AER) of 2.96%.
It is being replaced with a new 18-month fixed term deposit account offering with an AER of 2.98%.
In recent months bank and non-bank lenders have been moving to alter their lending and deposit rates in the wake of the start of interest rate reductions by the European Central Bank.
The ECB has cut rates three times, by a cumulative 0.75% since June.
A further reduction of at least 0.25% is expected at the bank’s December meeting of its Governing Council.
Figures released by the Central Bank last week showed that Irish mortgage rates fell to their lowest level in over a year in September.
The Central Bank said that mortgage rates eased to 4.08% in September from 4.11% in August.
Irish mortgage rates are now the joint sixth highest in the euro zone, where the average rate is 3.59%.