Tag Archives: conor pope

Irish Times business Podcast with Conor Pope

Conor Pope of the Irish Times speaks to Karl Deeter on the topic of ECB interest rate increases and how it will affect home owners. The podcast was part of the regular weekly business series available on the Irish Times website

Irish Times: Homeowners wary of ECB rate hikes

Conor Pope wrote in the Irish Times: “It is probably going to be the first of several moves but how close those moves come together and how aggressive those moves are is something that remains to be seen,” says financial analyst and mortgage adviser Karl Deeter. “Unfortunately there is only a lower limit on interest, there is no upward limit and in theory rates can go as high as they want to. If you look at our total number of mortgages and the number that are in distress versus where we probably should be, it is clear that thus far the low rates have has actually served us well and saved the country from having a much larger problem,” Deeter says.

Irish Times: Is it too late to fix your mortgage?

According to Karl Deeter, of Irish Mortgage Brokers, trying to second-guess the market in the long term is “an impossible art” and the time to fix, for many, has already passed. He points out that this time last year Permanent TSB was offering a 10-year fixed rate from 4.6 per cent, compared with 9.1 per cent today. “The horse has already bolted,” Deeter says. “The smart money always goes first and the stupid money goes at the end.” He recalls clients with seven-figure mortgages who left low-cost trackers early last year to sign up for 10-year fixed-rate mortgages to give themselves a degree of security until 2020, but he would not advise people to do that now.