Asians now rising up first time home buyer ladder
Tuesday March 06 2007
Figures show that five years ago foreign nationals accounted for just 7pc of the First-Time Buyer (FTB) market, but this has now jumped to 17pc.
Findings from research carried out by the Irish Mortgage Corporation (IMC) shows that many plan to stay here indefinitely while others plan to use the growth in house prices to fund a home in their native country in a number of years.
"Asians, particularly those from the Philippines, Pakistan, India and China, continue to steadily increase their share of the first-time buyer market," said Frank Conway, director of the IMC.
"Collectively, they have become the largest group, surpassing our closest neighbour, the UK, by a ratio of two-to-one."
Purchasing
Asians accounted for 40pc of the non-national buyer market in 2006, up from 31pc in 2005. Buyers from the UK accounted for 20pc last year, down from 26pc the previous year. The number of Africans purchasing has grown from 5pc in 2005 to 8pc last year.
However, overall market analysis reveals that Irish nationals continue to make up the largest percentage of first-time buyers.
"There is an unmistakable trend that foreign nationals are increasing their share of the first-time buyer market in Ireland. However, Irish people are still the largest group in the first time buyer category by a ratio of almost four-to-one," said Mr Conway.
In 2002 non-nationals accounted for 7pc of the FTB market. This has now grown to 17pc and is continuing to steadily increase.
Nationals of the new EU member states (Central and Eastern Europe) continue to purchase in lower numbers.
The IMC - which arranged over €1.3bn in mortgages in 2006 - believes that many may not yet meet lenders' minimum criteria to qualify for a mortgage.
However, they believe that foreign nationals could increase their share of the first-time buyer market to 25pc by the end of the decade, putting further pressure on Irish buyers who are struggling to get onto the property ladder.
Meanwhile, homeowners are bracing themselves for a further rate hike from the European Central Bank on Thursday.
They will raise it a further quarter point to 3.75pc, the seventh rate hike in less than two years.
A further increase is expected in May but earlier predictions of more hikes have been dampened somewhat by recent losses on the world stock markets.
- Edel Kennedy
