A 92-year-old Welsh woman has become one of the oldest first-time home buyers in the world after taking out a mortgage on a property in Australia.

Margaret Cole emigrated down under more than a quarter of a century ago from her native Neath in south Wales to be with her married daughter.

She has been a battler all her life and was not taking no for an answer

Estate agent, James Hunt

The former coal mine worker and mother-of-five had rented all her life in the UK and continued doing so in the country which has become her new home.

But she has entered the record books by taking out a 30-year loan to buy a three-bedroom cottage in New South Wales.

The deal that will see her become the oldest person in the world if she pays it off.

Until becoming a woman of property, Mrs Cole had rented homes on Australia's Gold Coast and Central Coast as well as in Sydney.

While most people could be expected to continue a habit of a lifetime, she has confounded critics who argued the banks would not lend to someone who was years past their active economic life.

Property prices in Wales are soaring

She was helped in her effort by a A$7,000 (�4,500) federal government grant for first-time buyers and by her daughter and brother-in-law who are acting a guarantors on the loan.

She admits to being inspired to apply for the government cash after seeing an advert aimed at the traditional market for first-time buyers - people much younger than her - but was not sure if she would be accepted

She need not have worried according to James Hunt, who handled her case for estate agents First National Wyong,

He said: "She has been a battler all her life and was not taking no for an answer."

The housing loan by ANZ Bank means Mrs Cole does not have to pay back her borrowings on the property at Watanobbi, a suburb about an hour's drive north of Sydney, with a high proportion of retired people, until she reaches the age of 122.

By then, properties in her native south west Wales might well be beyond her reach.

A report on housing prices in the UK estimates the prices of properties are currently increasing at a rate of about 20% per year.