Some professions can get 100% mortgages

Entering the property market for the first time will generate a few inevitable consequences, one of which will be a new financial awareness.

This awareness will act as the basis for most other finance-related choices the new homeowner will make. Decisions on expensive holidays will be balanced against mortgage repayments and the promise of new furniture will be the first thing in years to keep the buyer out of the pub on Friday nights.

Another (less obvious) consequence will come in a new-found sense of financial relativity. Without so much of a blink, the new householder will be able to look at any other house in their neighbourhood and make a stab at how much its owners must be earning to have qualified for the mortgage it will have entailed if bought in recent years.

Obviously, the waters will be muddied in this regard by a few factors, such as the deposit the people in the house had when they bought the property, or how much help they got from their parents. A third driver which may be forgotten will be what the people in the house do for a living, with professions a key factor in a lender's decision to give a mortgage.

In practice, an applicant's job has always been important in mortgage decisions. The past few years have, however, injected a degree of formality into this area, with some institutions now admitting that they will lend more money to people working in what would traditionally have been viewed as prestigious jobs.

The result is that a small number of lenders are prepared to lend out the entire value of a property if the buyer fits into quite a narrowly-defined list of professions.

The main players here are Ulster Bank, First Active and Bank of Ireland, all of which are now marketing 100 per cent mortgages for professionals. It all sounds a little bit alarming at first glance, but there are a few conditions that lenders put in place to make sure the whole business doesn't go mad.

The most, for example, that can be borrowed under these loans is €400,000 - enough to buy a small family home in Dublin and a more roomy abode in most other places. Applicants will also be expected to be of a certain age and to earn a certain minimum (23 and €32,000 in the case of Ulster Bank) before they qualify.

The main condition will be the actual profession in which the professionals in question must be engaged before they will get the loan. The old reliables come into their own here, with lawyers, doctors, accountants, dentists, vets and pharmacists topping the list. The truth is that they have the capacity to earn more and tend to have excellent job security.

Other jobs will also creep on to the list, depending on the institution, with actuaries having a good chance with some and physiotherapists and opticians going down well with others. Problems will arise when an individual believes themselves to be in a comparable job but does not qualify for the 100 per cent loan.

People falling into this category might hold positions such as company director or (as in one recent query to online consumer site, askaboutmoney.com) airline pilot. The answer to their protests will always be that a lender will make decisions on individual loans depending on individual circumstances. In other words, they may not qualify on paper for the 100 per cent loan, but that should not stop them arguing strongly for something close to it.