New lender to offer mortgages that can be repaid up to age of 80

A new mortgage provider in Ireland plans to increase the age limit for paying back the loan by around 10 years.

Austrian lender MoCo will allow people to repay their mortgage up to the age of 80.

Most banks only offer mortgages that must be paid off by the age of 70, a few years after the normal retirement age.

MoCo, which is owned by Austrian bank Bawag, will offer terms as long as 35 years. The lender said it would assess each applicant’s circumstances if they plan to make payments after retirement.

Joey Sheahan, from MyMortgages.ie, said applicants would not end up paying over the odds for the mortgage.

"Mortgage rates are as they are, whether you're under 70 or over 70," he told Newstalk radio. "It's a requirement of all mortgages that you will have a death benefit policy and mortgage protection – that's standard."

Nat O’Connor, a policy specialist with Age Action, said the option to repay up to the age of 80 could be useful for anyone looking to downsize and for people whose personal circumstances have changed.

"We would want to see appropriate Central Bank regulation so that there's no extra costs due to age, such as higher interest rates or expensive insurance costs," he said.

"I certainly don't want to see anybody losing their home in their 70s because of an inflexibility in the mortgage."