The average monthly mortgage repayment for first time buyers is €1,020 monthly - €110 more than before the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was announced earlier today, along with the news that mover purchasers are now paying €150 more than before, and Permanent TSB becoming the latest bank to raise the interest on fixed rate mortgages. Many of those who aspire to get a home in Ireland are following all these announcements and wondering whether they should act now or ‘wait it out’ and see if things will change for the better.

So we contacted a mortgage specialist to find that out. Cathal Coates is the Director of Best Rate Mortgages Limited, which is a part of the Association of Irish Mortgage Advisors.

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“It's probably still a good time for somebody to get a mortgage to purchase the property now,” Mr Coates said. "Those rates are going to keep climbing. If they can secure a rate at a reasonably low level as we're today, rather than waiting to buy in two years time, they would avoid possibly paying mortgage rates at two or three per cent higher."

The idea that we should wait a few years to see if there’s going to be a decline in property prices is a misconception, he added. "If you put a straight line through the property prices in the last 70 years for example, it would just trend north”, he said.

"The economy does go up, inflation, cost-of-living – it all goes up. I don't think we're in the middle of a property boom at the moment, pricewise. Because I think it's simple economics – supply and demand.

"The increase in the property price market seems to be softening a little bit in the last quarter of this year, but I think the market will still continue to increase, just at a lower level."

A pedestrian walks past the window display of an estate agents in Dublin

But while the lack of housing supply in Ireland remains the biggest issue right now, Cathal believes that the demand for the small amount of homes that are available to buy, as well as people looking to switch mortgage providers as rates are increased, will keep mortgage brokers busy. He said: “We're seeing huge volumes of applications coming in. People are looking to buy properties, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be enough properties available.

"In total, there will be approximately €14 billion lent out this year. A high percent of that will be people switching mortgages, but probably three-quarters of that will be people moving houses or buying new houses. So there's still a huge, huge demand.”

Meanwhile, Government schemes designed to help first time buyers get on the property ladder are slightly fuelling the price increases in newbuilds. “I think it's unfortunate that they don't incorporate some kind of scheme, which incorporates people buying secondhand properties as well,” Mr Coates said.

“A lot of that money is going back into the developer's pockets. There needs to be more properties made available to the ordinary consumer on the street to buy so they can have somewhere to bring up their family.”

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