Deferred mortgage repayments can help borrowers get through the first lean months, but also add to costs in the long run, writes Laura Slattery.

Want to buy property but put off the pain of pocket-emptying mortgage repayments? Most lenders are happy for commercial reasons to help out in these crisis furniture-buying, solicitor-paying times by agreeing to postpone the requirement to pay back the loan for the first few months.

However, first-time buyers who choose 100 per cent mortgages will not be able to take up the deferred start options offered to people borrowing a lower percentage of the property price.

Permanent TSB is not making its deferred start Take 4 Mortgage available to people borrowing 100 per cent. Under this mortgage, borrowers can decide to make no repayments for up to four months at the start of their mortgage, but the lender is limiting the maximum percentage Take 4 customers can borrow to 98 per cent.

Bank of Ireland said its deferred start option, where borrowers can put off repaying for the first three months, was only available to people borrowing 90 per cent or less of the property purchase price.

The bank allows its customers to take up to four payment breaks of three consecutive months during the life of the mortgage. Customers borrowing 100 per cent will have to wait at least two years before they can apply for a break, according to Olive Moran, marketing manager for Bank of Ireland Mortgages.

First Active, the lender that started the craze for 100 per cent mortgages, does not officially offer a deferred start or payment break facility.

Borrowers cannot skip months unless they have made prior "step-up" or additional payments in order to fund the payment holiday.

Ulster Bank, which like First Active is part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group, normally allows borrowers on its flexible tracker mortgage to apply for a payment break once they have made monthly repayments for six consecutive months.

A spokesman for Ulster Bank says that all payment breaks, including those applied for by 100 per cent borrowers, are subject to approval based on the lender's assessment of borrowers' ability to repay. This is because borrowers who take payment breaks without having made previous overpayments will ultimately end up paying a higher monthly repayment within the original mortgage term.

Payment breaks are popular with new parents and people taking leave of absences from work, the spokesman said.

Lenders apply their standard credit criteria when they decide how much money they will advance to first-time buyers, regardless of what percentage of the property price they want to borrow.

Although buyers won't actually be able to borrow any more under a 100 per cent mortgage, the product has been labelled risky because borrowers do not hold any equity in their homes at the beginning of the term - as someone who has paid an 8 per cent deposit would - and will quickly find themselves in negative equity if property prices were to fall.

Making a deferred start option available would delay the process of building up equity even further. In any case, 100 per cent borrowers presumably won't be as strapped for furniture cash as their counterparts who have poured every last cent into their deposit. Therefore, the 100 per cent borrowers, if they have saved anything at all, won't have as great a need for a deferred start.

But lenders' willingness to offer deferred starts to other borrowers is not surprising, as by leaving their loan intact at the initial amount drawn down, even for a short time, borrowers substantially increase the total amount of interest they pay over the rest of the life of the mortgage. Permanent TSB allows borrowers to work out exactly how much postponing their mortgage repayments will cost them by including a calculator on its website.

On a loan of €250,000 over a term of 35 years at an interest rate of 3.1 per cent, the monthly repayments work out at €976. Avoid repaying this sum for the first four months, and the repayments will rise by €15 to €991 a month for the rest of the term.

Perhaps more starkly, the total interest bill - assuming interest rates stay the same - will be €2,477 extra as a result of availing of its Take 4 facility.

Nevertheless, for borrowers who have the discipline to make a compensatory lump sum or regular overpayment at a later date, opting for a deferred start or early payment break to pay for furniture and other expenses could be more sensible and less costly than piling the purchases on to their credit card bill.

The chances are that first-time buyers still trying to adjust to the burden of their mortgage repayments won't be able to pay off the price of a living room suite, beds and a kitchen full of white goods without first racking up significant double-figure interest charges.

If left to fester, a credit card bill could wreak more damage for first-time buyers' finances than a mortgage payment break at comparatively low interest rates that can be made up for in times of healthier cashflow.