`People can't believe this is happening'

In today's property marketplace couples like Terry and Ian at least have an edge because they have two incomes - single people need to be earning unusually high incomes to purchase even apartments, much less houses. "The competition is unbelievable. It's nerve-wracking," says Natasha Fennell, who works on RTÉ Television's current affairs programme Leargas. She is trying to buy a one-bedroom apartment which is going to tender. Originally listed at £65,000, it could go for far more. "People can't believe this is happening for a one-bedroom apartment," she says. At the viewing, Natasha found herself surrounded by parents who wanted to buy the apartment for their adult daughters. It's getting to the stage where the financial help of parents is crucial if a young person is to become a home-owner.

The property market was still relatively accessible three years ago when Natasha went abroad to Australia and South East Asia to travel and work. She had the idea that when she eventually returned to Dublin, she would buy a £50,000 artisan's cottage in Ringsend. When she arrived home last year, the same house was going for £95,000 minimum. Add to that stamp duty and perhaps £30,000 worth of work, and the artisan's cottage is now nothing but a fantasy for Natasha. The EBS is trying to help single buyers by allowing them to borrow more than two-and-a-half times their salary if they have a guarantor (often a parent) for the remainder, or if they agree to rent a portion of their property and use the rental income to help pay the mortgage. Affordability isn't the only issue for Natasha, however. Owning an abode and actually feeling at home there are not necessarily the same, she fears. "I want to live in a settled community where I can walk to the local shops and where there is a mix of families and people of different ages," she says. "Instead, I will probably end up in a one-bedroom flat in an area like Christchurch in Dublin. These new apartments don't feel like a home. They're just a place to sleep at night and have breakfast in. There's not even any storage and you can't light a fire."

Natasha, who grew up on a tiny island off Connemara, Maoinis, does not like the way Dublin is developing from a city of villages where there is a sense of community, to a collection of isolated pockets of estates and apartment complexes. "We're going to have all these bedroom communities where the parents leave every morning and the children are in creches. I have married friends living in new estates which are deserted during the day and where people don't even know their own neighbours," she says.