Numbers published this week by the Irish Central Bank show mortgage interest rates climbed 0.62 percentage points to 3.54% for new business in March.

That rise puts the Irish mortgage rate marginally higher than the euro area average.

The data showed that the vast majority of borrowers were opting for fixed-rate mortgage agreements, with interest rates on those agreements slightly lower than the headline rate. Only 11% of borrowers opted for a floating rate loan.

The Central Bank also published data on the amount of money borrowed, with the total of €2.5bn worth of new mortgages in the first three months of this year – the largest amount of new business in the first quarter since at least 2011.

Borrowers may be in a hurry to lock in lower costs now, as the European Central Bank (ECB) seems set on continuing to increase interest rates for some time.