Two out of five current house purchasers don't need a mortgage to buy a property.
That's according to the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers, which says one-off buyers who can pay more than the market value for a property are buying them without a mortgage.
The organisation says there is a lot of money in the economy to buy property at the moment.
Pat Davitt, chief executive of IPAV, says it's very difficult for first-time buyers with mortgages to compete with the market:
"And especially in Ireland at the moment, because gazumping, as we know about, is not illegal. So people can actually increase a price, even though an agent might well have a property sold to first time buyers. And maybe just before the property sale happens, somebody goes to the owner or comes to the agent and makes a further higher offer to them, and that agent has to go to the vendor with that higher offer".
