The average first-time home buyer is now getting a mortgage worth €210,000.

The figure is an increase of €15,000 on this time last year.

Economists are blaming rising house prices for the hike, forcing customers deeper into debt.

Almost 4,000 mortgages were approved by Irish banks in July. Just over half of those were taken out by first-time buyers.

Gross mortgage lending is expected to grow by around 30% this year, but house price inflation is set to grow in tandem, reports Geoff Percival in the Irish Examiner.

New figures published by the Banking & Payments Federation of Ireland show strong year-on-year growth for mortgage approvals in July. Overall approvals were up 17% on the same month last year, with 3,970 granted at a combined €853m.

That value was up 23.3% year-on-year. Approvals for first-time buyers rose 21.4%, to just over 2,000, year-on-year.

There was a 14.5% rise in mover-purchaser mortgages approved, accounting for nearly a third of July’s approvals. Re-mortgage/switching approvals rose by over 15%, on an annualised basis, last month.