Loan-to-Value (LTV) | Easy Money Calc Glossary

The ratio of a mortgage loan to the property's value, expressed as a percentage — the headline metric for how much equity a buyer has and what rate they can get.

Loan-to-Value (LTV) is the size of a mortgage expressed as a percentage of the property’s value. A buyer purchasing a €400,000 home with a €40,000 deposit and a €360,000 mortgage has a 90% LTV. The lower the LTV, the more equity the buyer has, and the lower the risk to the lender.

The Central Bank of Ireland caps LTV at origination:

First-time buyers: up to 90% LTV.
Second and subsequent buyers (SSBs): up to 80% LTV.
Buy-to-let: up to 70% LTV.

Lenders can breach the cap on up to 15% of new lending in any year — those exemptions are tightly rationed and often go to higher-income borrowers. Hitting an LTV exemption is not a routine product feature; it’s discretionary at the underwriter level.

LTV also drives the interest rate offered. Most Irish lenders publish “LTV tiers” — sub-60%, 60–80%, 80–90% — with the lower-LTV tiers getting the best rates. Saving a bigger deposit not only reduces the loan amount but typically also reduces the rate per euro borrowed, compounding the saving.

Use the mortgage affordability calculator to see what LTV your deposit and target property combine to, and the mortgage repayment calculator to compare monthly costs across LTV tiers.