A Government report on the property market has been criticised as out of date by the building industry.
The document from the Department of the Environment says one-third of first-time home buyers took out 100% mortgages in 2006.
Junior Environment Minister Batt O'Keeffe says lenders need to be aware of the impact of lending policies. He says borrowers should take account of long-term costs and that interest rates can change significantly.
However, asked on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland, Mr O'Keeffe said that it was a buyers' market and agreed that he would advise a young person to buy now rather than in year's time.
The main difficulty with 100% loans taken last year is that those borrowers could face the prospect of negative equity in a falling property market.
One broker, the Irish Mortgage Corporation, says it is no longer the case that a third of first-time buyers take 100% loans. It says the figure is 24% for the first half of this year.
The Construction Industry Federation says the report fails to take account of higher mortgage interest relief introduced in the Budget.
The Department of the Environment's Housing Statistics Bulletin also puts the average price of a second-hand house in Dublin at €520,000 last year. That is higher than other estimates - but it is based on official figures.
The report also contains an estimate of residential zoned serviced land. This shows that there were more than 15,900 hectares of such land in the State at the end of June last year, which would be enough for 492,000 housing units. This was an increase on the 12,500 hectares estimated two years earlier.
But the Construction Industry Federation has strongly criticised a statement in the report that there is sufficient zoned land in the Dublin area.
The bulletin shows that the average house price in the final three months of last year was 9% higher than a year earlier at €314,087. It also shows that 33,000 homes were built in the first five months of 2007. A record 93,419 homes were built last year, but most commentators expect a lower figure this year.
