Avant Money launches a new mortgage today from < 2%

I think it's worth thinking about the breakeven period for the costs of switching. If Avant stay sustainably lower than AIB for (say) the next five years then the payback period is longer.


I have zero inside knowledge but I guess they plan to be close to or cheapest on the market for quite a while in order to build market share.
 
My broker just confirmed that avabt do not and in his opinion wil not be contib to solic fees
 
From q2 avant will allow overpayment of 10%, according to broker.

Does anyone have anything referencing avant contributing to solic fees?
This wasn't a North Inner-city Dublin broker by an chance? I heard the same thing this week (re: overpaying) and wondering if it was the same broker.
 
A broker told me that lots of borrowers were choosing Avant and then, on hearing about the 1% restriction, were choosing Ulster instead.
 
Are Avant still only doing mortgages in the main cities or have they expanded to the rest of the country?
 
Well it seems that contrary to what others have posted here, Avant dont contrib to solic fees. I wish they did.

Can anyone confirm otherwise?
I haven't seen a single suggestion, here or elsewhere, that Avant currently contribute to legal fees.

The suggestion made by a poster was that they may in future.
 
Are Avant still only doing mortgages in the main cities or have they expanded to the rest of the country?
I see a lot of mortgage ads online. I live well outside any of the areas listed by Avant, so I was surprised to see an ad from one of their brokers in my Facebook feed. When I checked out why I was seeing the ad, it included my nearest town in the criteria. Not sure if it's the broker using a headline rate of 1.95%, to then say I don't qualify for that, or if they've widened their geographical criteria.

I don't want a mortgage to find out!
 
The areas they cover would include well in excess of 80% of the outstanding mortgage balances, and new mortgages issued, in the country.

Those five counties are ≈50% of population. Higher house prices for sure, and probably more FTBs in urban areas.

But is new lending by value to the other half of the country by population well below 20%?
 
But is new lending by value to the other half of the country by population well below 20%?
Yes.

Edit: Didn't mean the short answer!

The 'Dublin' criteria : " Dublin county plus any town within 30km of Dublin county border"
This alone covers 60% of the value of new mortgages issued by most of the banks.
 
Why is it just Dublin, Cork and Galway?

Because urban or near-urban properties are deemed lower risk.

On the basis that there’s more demand for them, the market is more liquid, etc.

Basically, with all other things being equal, a bank would much prefer to lend €300k on a €400k house in Dublin rather than €300k on a €400k house in Leitrim.
 
The 'Dublin' criteria : " Dublin county plus any town within 30km of Dublin county border"
Ah I hadn't seen the criteria set out so precisely. Your 80% number sounds totally right so.


On the basis that there’s more demand for them, the market is more liquid, etc.
I think the Central Bank had some research years ago showing that probability of default was higher in rural areas too.

But I think sometimes too much can be read into the particular madness of 2002 to 2008. There were some crazy lending and borrowing decisions made, but it was quite a short period of time.
 
Yes, given how difficult it is to get someone out of their home at all, it seems like a potentially crude measure of risk. Especially with remote working, where quite wealthy people might choose to relocate to more rural areas.
 
Does anyone have anything referencing avant contributing to solic fees?
I have nothing at all bar the conversation with the broker I was chatting to. I know him well and he seemed pretty convinced Avant will be offering to pay for the solicitors fees at some stage this year