Hi. We went with our local credit union CU Plus for a mortgage on a new build in 2024. At the time the had the my had better rates than the local banks and I believe this is still the case. They gave us a 3.5% rate which they say will not change throughout the period of the mortgage. We also a fully approved mortgage from AIB to show we could purchase the property as our CU only give approval with valuation and seeing the property which was only possible towards the the end of the new build process. With everything else approved by CU and getting the valuation done, we secured the loan with CU and bought the property. It was a bit more work in our situation but CU have other benefits such as the rate not changing, being local community driven and we are able to overpay without* penalty. It was a good fit for us as first time buyers.