THE FIRST-TIME BUYER: 'I started thinking about buying when I got a new job'

Dave Goggin found the new two-bedroom apartment he hopes to buy at Park West Pointe on the web - even though he already works in the Park West Business Park on the west edge of Dublin.

A native of west Cork, 32-year-old Dave has been living in Dublin for the past 10 years, and is currently sharing an apartment in Chapelizod, where he pays €550 a month rent - half the €1,100 total.

He started thinking seriously about buying a home about a year ago when he got a new job and a bigger salary. Since then, he's been checking out property websites in any spare time he has and found it a pretty efficient way of househunting.

He looks at general websites, and then moves on to look at the agents' own sites for more detail.

He wanted an 100 per cent mortgage, and one of the first things he discovered is that you can't get one on a studio or one-bedroom apartment.

That narrowed his search, as did his discovery that any apartment near Dublin city centre would cost over €400,000. He thought about getting a house too, but found he'd have to buy far outside Dublin.

And he adds: "I would have gone for a second-hand house, but the stamp duty turned me off."

When he found that a two-bedroom 80sq m (866sq ft) apartment at Park West Pointe would cost him €340,000, he decided to go for it.

He sent emails to various lenders, who all responded within 24 hours, paid his deposit, made a formal loan application and is now waiting for everything to click into place.

His mortgage will be €1,450, but he is confident that he can manage it: he has a senior position in a mobile phone company and a good salary.

And he is enthusiastic about living at Park West Pointe, which has a lot of facilities young professionals want.

"It's as much a residential space as a business park," says Dave.

As well as good public transport (buses to town and feeder buses to the Luas nearby during the day) there's a gym, a hotel being built, a restaurant and, crucially, a Chinese takeaway.