The majority of first-time buyers do not consider their current mortgage commitments to be too onerous, according to a survey published today.
The quarterly national household survey on housing finds that around half of the 240,700 houses bought since 1996 were by first-time buyers. Over a quarter of these first time buyers were making monthly mortgage repayments of over €600, while a further 28.4 per cent had repayments of over €400.
Almost 6 per cent of the recent purchasers indicated that their repayments were over €1,000 per month.
Over 75 per cent of first-time buyers considered their mortgages to be either easy to manage (20.8 per cent) or manageable (55 per cent). Just over 10,000 (8.6 per cent) perceived this cost to be difficult to manage.
At a regional level, the percentage of such first-time buyers paying in excess of €600 was highest in Dublin at 46.7 per cent.
Almost 62 per cent all homeowners surveyed had no mortgage or loans on their dwellings compared with 58.8 per cent in 1998.
The majority of these homeowners purchased their homes before 1980, although around a quarter of the purchasers since 1996 also had no mortgage.
Home ownership remains high in Ireland, with over 72 per cent of private dwellings in the State being owner-occupied in 2003. An additional 3.2 per cent (43,900) were classified as having or being acquired through a local authority.
The average number of persons per household recorded in the third quarter of 2003 was 2.91. This compares with 3.02 from a similar housing survey in 1998.
With the exception of Dublin, housing in Ireland continues to be dominated by detached housing. Almost 44 per cent of all private dwellings were classified as either a detached house or bungalow. This compares to a 1998 figure of 42.9 per cent .