Some 20 per cent of first-time house buyers rely on a gift from a parent or relative to help fund their purchase, research published today shows.
The study of the first time buyers' market by permanent tsb and the ESRI reveals that the average gift received is €15,000.
The study also shows that almost half (44 per cent) of first-time buyers believe their monthly mortgage repayments are "no burden at all".
The research was carried out by the Economic and Social Research Institute and which questioned 772 first-time buyers who took out a permanent tsb home loan over the last 3 years.
Some 49 per cent of those questioned said that their mortgage repayments represented "somewhat of a burden" while 6.5 per cent said that their mortgage repayments were a "heavy burden."
The average age of a first time buyer is 30; 80 per cent are younger than 34 while 10 per cent are older than 40.
Some 80 per cent used savings as part of their house purchase with the average saved being €23,000. One third saved for between two and five years and three quarters saved for more than two years.
While apartments account for 16 per cent of first-time buyers' purchases in Dublin city and county, nationally they only account for 5.4 per cent.
The most common house type to be purchased is semi-detached (39.9 per cent) with 36.1 per cent opting for detached houses. More than 58 per cent of first-time buyers' said that they had purchased a "new" dwelling.
The research shows that first-time buyers' are typically (76 per cent) taking out mortgages of more than 20 years. Some 38 per cent opted for a term of between 26 and 30 years. Almost 75 per cent of those surveyed opted for an initial fixed rate when taking the mortgage.
More than 65 per cent of first-time buyers took out a joint mortgage. Of those that did so, nearly 97 per cent took out the mortgage with their spouse or partner.
Nearly 32 per cent questioned bought a property priced between €150,000 and €200,000, while 75 per cent purchased a house priced between €100,000 and €250,000.
The average price of a first-time purchase within Dublin was €235,000 while outside Dublin the average was €163,000.
