More and more single people are buying homes on their own and parental support is becoming an increasingly popular source of finance for home purchases according to the State's biggest mortgage lender, Bank of Ireland.
Data published today by the bank shows that 43 per cent of first time buyers are buying alone. This figure represents a 14 per cent increase in the number of people taking out a mortgage on their own in the 10 years since 1991.
The average first time buyer loan with Bank of Ireland has increased from €26,246 in 1991 to €118,000 in 2001. In the first 9 months of the current year, this has increased by 14.5 per cent to €135,000.
The figures also reveal that, on average, first time buyers are borrowing 75 per cent of the market value of the property. Given that Irish banks will lend up to 92 per cent of the property value, the figures suggest that first time buyers are benefiting from other sources of funding, for example parental support.
The figures were extracted from Bank of Ireland's database which provides information on a national scale.
The data also reveals a slight gender imbalance, with men accounting for more first time buyer mortgages than women. Of the percentage of people (43per cent) who bought on their own in 2001, 60 per cent were men and 40 per cent were women. In 1991 44 per cent of first time buyers taking on sole mortgages were women.
Bank of Ireland's research also shows that an emerging trend among first time buyers working in Dublin or other large urban centres is to continue working and renting in the city but to buy their first home where they grew up.
According to Ms Olive Moran, Marketing Manager, Bank of Ireland Mortgages, "One of the reasons given for this trend is that many have seen the house prices rise in Dublin by so much that they see it as imperative to get on the housing ladder sooner rather than later. In most cases, the perception among first time buyers is that a mortgage costs less than renting and that rent means "paying someone else's mortgage".