More than 8,100 mortgages were approved in the final three months of 2014 in Ireland, which was 52% more than in the same period a year earlier, as buyers rushed to get their mortgage in place to beat Central Bank lending limits.

For the whole of last year some 22,000 new mortgages were drawn down by house and property purchasers, according to new figures from the Irish Banking and Payments Federation, a lobby group for the banks. It was the highest level of mortgage drawn downs since 2010. The figures show mortgages to the value of €1.3bn were drawn down during the final quarter of last year.

New limits on lending came in to effect in Ireland recently, restricting first and second-time buyers to borrowing no more than 80% of the value of the property for amounts over €220,000, while only three-and-a-half times the group income of buyers can be used to calculate the maximum that can borrowed. The new rules do not affect switchers.

Economist with the Banking Federation Ali Ugur said the impact of the Central Bank’s new mortgage lending measures remained uncertain.