People will have to work an extra year of their lives to pay back higher mortgages, according to Ciara Kelly.

The Newstalk Breakfast presenter was speaking as a new study shows rising prices and less spending power mean first-time buyers are worse off than they were a year ago.

The Banking & Payments Federation (BPFI) says the average first-time buyer mortgage was €263,312 in June - the highest level since the data series began.

That's up by €30,000 compared to a year earlier.

Ciara said this means people will be working for longer.

"When you look at being 30,000 more in debt, by the time you pay that back it's 60,000.

"And that's probably an extra year of work out of someone's working life.

"A whole year of their income will have to go towards feeding this mortgage - or indeed that have to work for a year longer.

"So there is a huge difficulty for people here."

She says while she understands why people are annoyed, this comes down to two issues.

"The reality of it is this is a planning situation, and this is a supply situation - and we have a lack of supply.

"We have a planning system that is slow and torturous, we have NIMBYism rampant in this country - including politicians, in many cases, objecting to houses in their own constituency."

But she says Ireland isn't alone in this problem.

"There is supply chain issues, there are construction inflation: there's all kinds of issues feeding into this.

"And lest we forget... this is going on in every other country in Europe as well, that there are difficulties with people getting their foot on the housing ladder.

"I have no doubt that this is the issue of this generation, and I have no doubt that this is the issue that politicians will have to grapple with at the next general election.

"I have young adult children who have no notion - and I have no idea how they're ever going to be able to afford a house currently - unless something changes radically.

"Things are beyond the reach of most normal people", she adds.