More than four out of every 10 property purchases in the past two years were by people buying holiday homes or buying to let, according to a TNS/Mrbi survey.
The survey also found that half of all purchases for residential letting in the last two years were made by members of the most affluent social group, AB.
The survey was conducted between July and September 2005 amongst 4,000 adults.
The deputy managing director of Tns Mrbi, Damian Loscher, who is also chairman of the Marketing Society, said he decided to have the survey conducted because "I wanted to kick off the new year with some research data".
"A significant amount of mortgage borrowing is for what could be described as investment purposes, where the spend is largely discretionary and confidence is critical to the transaction," Mr Loscher said.
"If confidence slides, mortgage borrowing is likely to follow suit, the effects of which are likely to be felt across the economy."
The survey also found that property bought for residential letting is more highly geared than property bought for owner occupation, and tended to be more expensive than property bought by owner-occupiers or people buying holiday homes.
It found that 84 per cent of properties bought for residential letting had mortgages attached, compared to 80 per cent of owner-occupied properties.
The survey found that 20 per cent of the AB group had a holiday home and 18 per cent had a residential letting property.
Amongst respondents generally the survey found that 80 per cent were comfortable with their debt level, with 61 per cent spending 20 per cent or less of their household income on mortgage repayments.
It found indicators that first-time buyers were more stretched financially than other respondents, with 46 per cent carrying over credit card balances as against 34 per cent for others.
On loan-to-value ratios the survey found that 55 per cent of first-time buyers had taken out a 90-per-cent-plus mortgage. This increased to 63 per cent of all Dublin home buyers.
For owner-occupiers the average mortage was for 75 per cent of the value of the home while for property to let the ratio was 78 per cent.
