New Irish mortgage rules will moderate house prices - central bank

DUBLIN, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The price of buying a home in Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) will moderate as a result of new limitations on mortgage lending introduced by the country's central bank last year, its new governor Philip Lane said on Tuesday.

"One way the sector will adjust is the pricing on homes will moderate, there is lots of evidence that when credit is less available, the bidding war on houses will be less intense and so people will be able to buy houses at a lower price than if they were unregulated," Lane told a parliamentary committee.

Asked if the central bank would step in to reduce the rates mortgage holders are paying, Lane said he held his predecessor's position that banks must be run on a commercial position and the central bank "cannot interfere with the contracts between lenders and borrowers". (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by David Clarke)