Borrowing warning - First-time buyers face tough times

WITH the first three months of this year barely gone, the worrying trend in house prices is continuing relentlessly.

It may be good news for those whose interests lie outside the second-hand property market, but it is an exceptionally gloomy outlook for those aspiring first house buyers.

There is also the strange dichotomy of the Financial Regulator warning banks to cover themselves against borrowings, while estate agent Sherry Fitzgerald reports house prices are up by 7.6% in the first quarter of this year and will remain buoyant.