Recent home owners and first-time buyers are facing a monthly mortgage burden several times greater than those who purchased homes before the property boom, new figures show.
However, despite the sharp increase in house prices, three-quarters of first-time house buyers say their mortgages are manageable or easy to manage.
Of the 240,700 householders in owner-occupied dwellings purchased since 1996, around 25 per cent had monthly mortgage repayments in excess of €600. This compared to just under 3 per cent with monthly payments this high among those who purchased houses prior to this period.
Almost 6 per cent of recent purchasers indicated their repayments were in excess of €1,000 a month.
The figures, contained in the Central Statistics Office's quarterly national household survey for the third quarter of 2003, show three-quarters of recent first-time buyers said their mortgages were either easy to manage (21 per cent) or manageable (55 per cent). Just under 10 per cent perceived their costs to be difficult or very difficult to manage.
On a regional level the numbers of first-time buyers paying mortgage repayments in excess of €600 were greatest in the Dublin area (47 per cent).
The average weekly rent in the private rented sector is also highest in the Dublin area (€224.42) and the mid-east (€184.44), perhaps reflecting the region's proximity to the capital.
Rents were lowest in the Border (€110.47) and the midlands (€124.97) regions.
Home ownership remains high in Ireland (72 per cent), while another 3 per cent of homeowners acquired their houses through local authority schemes.
Housing in the State also continues to be dominated by detached housing, with the exception of the Dublin area.
Detached housing or bungalows were highest in the west (70 per cent) and accounted for between 45 and 60 per cent in all other parts of the country with the exception of Dublin (12 per cent).
On the other hand, bed-sits or apartments accounted for around 13 per cent of dwellings in Dublin, compared to just 2.3 per cent in the west and 2 per cent in the midlands.
Owner-occupier rates also varied around the country, with ownership rates highest in the mid-east (79 per cent) while Dublin had the lowest (64 per cent).
These rates were reversed for rented households, with Dublin accounting for the highest proportion of rented dwellings (23 per cent) and the south-west, including Cork, the second highest at 16.2 per cent. The mid-east had the lowest rate (11.6 per cent), following by the mid-west (11.7 per cent).
Figures also suggest the average size of the household is slowly decreasing.
Almost half (48 per cent) of all households surveyed in 2003 accommodated one or two people, while 6 per cent of houses had six or more residents. This compared to 46 per cent and 8 per cent in a similar survey five years earlier.
Meanwhile, a report by Combat Poverty has criticised the Government's failure to provide enough housing for those on low incomes. It said there was a clear need to increase the supply of social rental housing units.
Fine Gael's environment spokesman, Mr Bernard Allen, said the report illustrated the Government's failure to meet its commitment to build sufficient amounts of social housing while 50,000 families were on local authority waiting lists.
The Government, however, argues that record numbers of housing units are being built and says it is committed to reducing waiting list figures.
