First-time buyer couples ‘spend 27% of income servicing mortgages’

THE amount of income spent by first-time buyer couples nationally servicing their mortgages has rocketed from 14.5% in 1996 to 27%.

According to an Affordability Index launched yesterday by EBS Building Society and DKM Economic Consultants, that figure rises to 32% for the Dublin area and compares with figures of 24% nationwide and 29% in the Dublin area this time last year.

With the European Central Bank about to raise interest rates by up to 1% over the next nine months “affordability will become a key issue for borrowers and lenders alike,” warned Dara Deering, head of mortgages, EBS, at the launch of the report in Dublin.