The number of first-time property buyers on Iceland’s housing market has dropped dramatically since the Central Bank of Iceland tightened loan requirements in June 2022, RÚV reports. First-time buyers have not been such a low proportion of real-estate purchasers in seven years.
In June last year, the Central Bank’s Financial Stability Committee lowered the maximum loan-to-value ratio on mortgage loans to first-time buyers from 90% to 85%. The debt-to-income ratio for first-time buyers was also set at 40%. These were just two of the changes made that tightened regulations on loans to this group. Central Bank Governor Ásgeir Jónsson stated the changes were intended to protect young people and cool the housing market.
“When the Central Bank of Iceland applied these measures, [the governor] talked about how it would be more difficult for first-time buyers to enter the market, and that has proven to be the case,” stated Kári S. Friðriksson, an economist at the Housing and Construction Authority (HMS).
Reversal of trend
The year 2021 was advantageous for first-time buyers: in the first quarter, they reached an all-time record of 1,941 in number. In the second quarter their average age dropped to 29, the lowest since 2006. In the third quarter of 2021, first-time buyers rose to a record 33.8%. Now tightened mortgage regulations and raised interest rates appear to have reversed those trends. In the last quarter, first-time buyers had dropped to 26.5% and numbered 900 – less than half the number in the first quarter of 2021.
Kári stated he would not be surprised if the current situation on the housing market would lead to a rise in rental prices. “They have actually risen quite little both considering housing prices and considering wages for several years now.”
