Gone are the days when would-be borrowers went to their building societies on bended knee and considered themselves lucky to come away with a homeloan.

These days, mortgages come in all shapes and sizes. And provided borrowers can stump up at least 10 per cent of the total loan value and the amount borrowed is adequately covered by income, there should be a package to suit all needs and it should not be hard to come by.

Competition in the market is cut-throat with lenders competing on rates, fees and the various options that go with a mortgage and all are keen to give loans to those who can afford to repay them.

"It's a pitch battle out there," says the head of lending at one leading mortgage institution.

The main type of homeloan on offer in Ireland is a repayment or annuity mortgage.

Lenders also offer endowment mortgages but demand for these has fallen sharply in recent years, accounting for just 4.9 per cent of the total in 1996 compared with 39.4 per cent in 1992.

Some of the lending institutions such as Bank of Ireland and First National Building Society also offer pension mortgages but this remains very much a niche product.

In terms of maturity, many lenders now offer mortgages for periods of up to 30 years, but Irish borrowers generally opt for a 20or 25-year loan.

The real difference between the mortgages on offer remains in the cost and with mortgage interest rates in flux in the run-up to European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), borrowers are advised to look around carefully before plumping for any particular institution. They should also think long and hard before deciding whether to opt for a fixed or variable rate.

When choosing a rate, the key figure to look out for is the annual percentage rate or APR which tells the borrower the real cost of the mortgage on an annual basis while the cost per £1,000 indicates how much will have to be paid out each month.

Borrowers are also reminded to make sure they factor in the cost of insurance and mortgage protection before making any decisions.

Lenders say that more than one-third of borrowers are currently opting for variable rates amid widespread expectations that short-term Irish interest rates will fall by up to one and a half percentage points in coming months.

Meanwhile, many of those going for fixed rates are choosing short-term options in the one- to three-year category.

Lenders say it is hard to predict the timing of further falls in interest rates, particularly variable rates, but they note that the general environment couldn't be better for borrowers with rates set to remain low for the foreseeable future.

In addition to cheap borrowing costs, Irish home-buyers can increasingly save on fees if they take time to look around.

While they will have to pay their own legal, valuation and survey costs and items like stamp duty, competition among lenders means they no longer have to pay application, administration or acceptance fees to the bank or building society. Most institutions still have a once-off indemnity bond payment, which protects the lender if the proceeds of a sale are less than the outstanding debt but increasingly this too is negotiable.

If the rates on offer and the fees to be paid still don't prove decisive, borrowers could consider the various other options contained in the mortgage package when deciding on which lending institution to bank with.

Increasingly, home-loans are tailored to meet borrowers' needs and many of them are now designed to make life easier when demands on cash are heavy.

Some lenders offer borrowers the option to repay on a weekly, fortnightly or quarterly basis, depending on when they receive their income.

Others allow mortgage repayments over 10, 11 or 12 months so borrowers can skip payments in August and December, for example, when they need more money for holidays or Christmas.

Holiday breaks from mortgage repayments are also available, designed to help those facing heavy family expenditure such as maternity leave, career breaks, or illness or bereavement.

First-time borrowers, who may need cash to refurbish or restore or to buy new furniture and fittings can reduce the amount of their repayments for the first few months with institutions like Irish Permanent.

Meanwhile, the better-off borrower can increase the size of monthly repayments and own their own home sooner and save money on interest.