There may not have been any queues, but business was brisk when 100 starter homes went on sale in Co Dublin last week many of them priced in excess of the psychological benchmark of £100,000.

Within 48 hours of going on the market, all 100 houses initially on offer in the Esker Meadow development near Lucan, Co Dublin, had been snapped up. Almost half were sold before the showhouses opened.

And despite the asking price of £99,000£107,000 for a three-bedroom semi, there was no shortage of buyers who were anxious to finally get a foot onto the first rung of the property ladder.

"I feel huge relief that I've managed to get a house in Dublin and not in the country," said Ms Amanda Waters (26), one of a number of young buyers.

"There's a lot of pressure on you. There you are, just about to pay over your £101,000 and there's a line of people behind you ready to get in next."

A saleswoman with a computer firm in Fairview, said she had managed to finance the purchase through "hard savings and a few sacrifices".

Despite reports of mortgage lenders being over-generous, she said she found them "very strict. Since the Central Bank stepped in on the guidelines, they seem to have become a lot more cautious and are sticking to two-and-a-half-times your salary limit".

She has already decided to take up a fixed-rate mortgage with Irish Permanent for at least two years, after which she may switch to a variable-rate.

Ms Wendy Dalton said she had been looking for a number of months for a house on the second-hand market and in new developments near her family home in Rathfarnham, but was "just out-priced".

"There's no incentive for buying a second-hand house. You're paying stamp duty and you lose out on your first-time buyer's grant. And the prices of second-hand houses are still very high."

She said she was happy to be paying £100,000 for a starter home although "anything above that and we would have had to make more savings". With two incomes coming in her own and her fiance's she said they would be able to meet the mortgage repayments and still have a comfortable lifestyle.

Mr Ken MacDonald, managing director of selling agents Hooke & MacDonald, said that first-time buyers could expect to pay around £100,000 for starter homes in an accessible location such as Lucan. "It's impossible for builders to do it for less than this kind of money with the price of land the way it is," he claimed.

He said the main categories of buyers were young professionals, engaged couples and returned emigrants. A recent trend, he added, was an increase in the number of buyers who received financial support from their parents.

According to Mr Denis Kelleher, a financial consultant with the Irish Mortgage Corporation, at least one quarter of first-time buyers are helped by their parents, some of whom may have just traded down on their family homes, giving them increased equity.

The typical buyer of a £100,000 starter home, he says, is a young couple with a combined salary of about £45,000, who would face mortgage payments of just more than £600 a month. This cost is offset by mortgage relief of £108 a month for a couple, and a £3,000 first-time buyer's grant which is received about four months after purchase.

Some buyers, however, are more exposed, especially families with only one income.

Mrs Sandra d'Mello, who has two young children, said she was facing mortgage payments of up to £900 a month for a £99,000 starter home in the Lucan development. Although it will require some savings, she said, it is preferable to paying rent of £400 a month which she has been doing since she moved to Dublin from India two years ago.

"We really want a base here as soon as possible, before the prices go up anymore," said Mrs d'Mello, whose husband is a doctor at the Rotunda Hospital.

Some first-time buyers use rent as a means of financing their new home, particularly in the first few years of their mortgage.

Mr Paul O'Connor (31), who is moving out from his family home in Blackrock, said he may rent out a couple of rooms in his new house to help clear his mortgage. "I'd be paying a mortgage of about £500 a month and could be taking in rent of about £600 a month," he said.

Like many first-time buyers, he is opting for a fixed-rate mortgage for at least three years and may switch to a variable-rate, depending on how interest rates change as a result of monetary union.

"The main thing is getting a foot in the door while you can still afford to," he said, "because when interest rates drop house prices are going to go up again."