Daft Property - Irish Property News

Euro crisis to freeze mortgage rate for year... HOMEOWNERS will be spared mortgage increases for up to a year -- but face heavy losses in the value of their pensions as markets plunged all over the world. The deepening euro crisis means interest rates are unlikely to rise for another year -- a reprieve for those on tracker mortgages. But the short-term relief could be seriously offset by the decline in the value of pensions and investments. They were worth hundreds of billions less after all the main European markets crashed by between 3pc and 4pc. US markets also closed well down - at 4.8pc - last night. And there are fears even more losses could pile up later today. The European Central Bank (ECB) left its key interest rate unchanged and gave no signal of an imminent rise at its monthly meeting in Frankfurt. Markets reacted by betting there would now be no further rate rise until well into 2013 -- as the euro crisis means the ECB cannot raise rates due to the fragile