Increase in singles buying own home

SINGLE people from Cork are at the front of the queue when it comes to buying their own home, according to new research by mortgage broker IFG Mortgages.

The company said yesterday that Cork was the number one location in Ireland for single first-time buyers, who accounted for 56% of all first-time buyer mortgage applications in the area. This compared with just 39% of all first-time buyers in north Dublin.

IFG Mortgages head of sales Shane Connole said the difference was down to higher house prices in Dublin and that higher salaries in the capital failed to offset the difference in prices.

“Our experience indicates that affordability is still a major deterrent for singles in Dublin,” said Mr Connole.

IFG’s study also found single people were accounting for a bigger portion of the first-time buyer market than in previous years. The market was now split almost 50/50 between married and single people, according to the research.

The company said single women were becoming an increasingly significant element in the market. While only 38% of single first-time buyers were women in 2004, this number had shot up to 45% this year.

Galway witnessed more house-buying activity from single women than single men, with 53% of first-time buyer applications in the area coming from women.

IFG said women had become more active in the market and, in the case of joint applications, tended to handle more of the responsibilities involved in negotiating than their husbands or boyfriends. They asked up to four times as many questions as men and were generally “more in tune with the mortgage process”.

The research also found first-time buyers made up 61% of the total market this year, up from 48% in 2004. The proportion of first-time buyers was largely constant throughout the country. Mr Connole also said IFG had seen an increasing number of joint applications from brothers, sister and friends.