Irish Examiner view: Warning signs of property price inflation

Overheating market

Almost 42% of first-time buyers used gifts to help fund their deposits, and almost 25% of mover purchasers went back to their families for more. Picture: PA

The news that many parents are releasing family funds to help their children clamber up the slippery pole to home ownership may not come as a shock, but the size of the sums now needed reaffirms that property price inflation has taken off. And we all know how well that ended last time.

Figures from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show the dependence on “the bank of mum and dad” to help make up the €52,000 deposit for a first-time mortgage while the median deposit required for a mover purchaser is €135,000.