{"id":609249,"date":"2026-08-30T13:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T13:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/609249\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T13:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T13:06:09","slug":"six-figure-salary-required-to-buy-first-home-in-three-counties-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/609249\/","title":{"rendered":"Six-figure salary required to buy first home in three counties, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three counties in Ireland now require a single first-time buyer to earn a six-figure salary to buy a typical first home, according to a new study.<\/p>\n<p>That figure is up fromm just one county a year ago, Dublin. A single buyer now needs \u20ac108,000 in Dublin, \u20ac101,250 in Wicklow and \u20ac100,238 in Kildare, according to new research from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chill.ie\/blog\/incomes-required-to-afford-homes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chill Insurance<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The research also found that in every one of the 26 counties, a single buyer earning the national median salary of \u20ac44,816 would fall short of the income required to buy a typical first home.<\/p>\n<p>The research describes a &#8220;country of two extremes&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>At the lower end, even Longford, the most affordable county, requires a first-time buyer to earn \u20ac48,375 for a typical first home. At the top, Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare each now require a six-figure salary.<\/p>\n<p>In all three, a single buyer on the local median income would need to more than double their salary to qualify for a mortgage on a typical first home in their county. In Dublin, the required salary is \u20ac108,000 against a local median income of \u20ac49,224, a shortfall of \u20ac58,776, the largest in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The research compared the median first-time buyer home price in each county, using the Central Statistics Office&#8217;s Residential Property Price Index, with median local incomes from CSO earnings data.<\/p>\n<p>These figures were then assessed against the standard Central Bank lending rules, under which a buyer can borrow up to 90 per cent of a home&#8217;s value and up to four times their gross income.<\/p>\n<p>Economist Austin Hughes said: &#8220;With Irish house prices continuing to increase faster than wages, first-time buyers are finding it increasingly difficult to find a property they can afford, not just in Dublin or major urban centres but right across the country.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Chill report emphasises the nationwide nature of the problem would-be homebuyers face. Even allowing for ongoing wage growth, in no county is the typical first-time buyer property accessible at present to the median wage-earner, unless they are in a position to get additional financial support from the State and\/or their family.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With would-be buyers in Dublin and surrounding counties now needing around twice the typical wage in those areas, and approaching that in Cork and Galway, this &#8216;purchase gap&#8217; is growing and spreading in a worrisome manner.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three counties in Ireland now require a single first-time buyer to earn a six-figure salary to buy a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-609249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}