£115,000 just to get a foot on the housing ladder

And first-timers, such as nurses and teachers, are borrowing an unprecedented average of 3.33 times their gross salary to get a foot on the property ladder.

The figures were published yesterday by the Council of Mortgage Lenders amid rising interest rates and growing concern that millions are at risk of running into arrears.

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Britain's 3.8million first-time buyers were paying an average of 18.7 per cent of their gross monthly income on mortgage repayments in April. This is the highest figure since the beginning of 1992.

Rising rates are also affecting home movers, who were paying 16.3 per cent of their income on mortgages in April - also the highest level since 1992.

These figures will worsen because they do not include the quarter-point rise in the base rate in May.

They will climb much higher if the base rate - as some predict - hits 6 per cent this year.

The current base rate of 5.5 per cent is considerably lower than the 10.4 per cent of April 1992. However, people are borrowing much more today.

In the early 1990s, young buyers were borrowing an average of £36,337 against a salary of £16,120 - a ratio of 2.31. But the average loan is now £114,685 against a salary of £34,881 - a ratio of 3.33.

The CML figures suggest that recent interest rate rises are driving buyers out of the market.

There were 80,000 loans for property purchase in April, down from 89,000 in March and below the 81,000 in the same month last year.

The value of these loans totalled £12billion, which was £500million more than the same month last year, providing further evidence that buyers are taking on much bigger loans.

Some 29,000 of the home loans went to first-time buyers, below the 33,000 in March and below the 30,800 in April last year. It represents the lowest April number for at least five years.

Oliver Gilmartin, senior economist from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: "With first-time buyers needing to borrow record multiples of income to get a foot on the property ladder, it is little surprise that four in every five are taking out fixed-rate deals.

"But the price of fixed-rate mortgages has risen consistently in 2007 and is set to rise further.

"More than two million buyers have fixed rate or discount deals which will come to an end over the next 18 months. They will suffer-a steep rise in monthly bills - typically between £102 and £143 - once they switch to a variable rate or other deal."

LibDem treasury spokesman Vince Cable said: "If interest rates rise further, many homeowners will simply not be able to pay. The number of repossession orders is soaring."

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King warned yesterday that British property values are heavily exposed to movements in world interest rates.

In recent years, he said, these have been kept low due to an influx of savings from Asian countries into financial markets, bidding down interest rates.

But that process could go into reverse. "I don't think we can say that house prices in the UK are immune to influences from the world economy," Mr King added. "That's the biggest source of uncertainty, I think."