Insight from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has established that new mortgage customers now need significantly bigger incomes to buy a home, compared to the property price peak of over a decade ago,
The organisation’s most recent Mortgage Market Profile Report indicates that 13% of first-time buyer mortgages and 7% of mover purchase mortgages were backed by incomes of up to €60,000 last year, compared to 51% and 28% respectively in 2005. The BPFI analysis also shows that the median total household income of first-time buyers rose from €71,000 to €77,000 between 2019 and 2021.
Statistics show that Dublin has kept its spot at the top of the mortgage market, with just over 30% of homes bought in the year to the end of December last located there. Cork came in second place with 11.4%, followed by Galway and Limerick. The highest median basic household incomes, monthly repayments, loan values and property values for first time buyers or those building new homes were in Wicklow.
It appears that 83% of home mortgage customers build or buy properties in the county where they live, while 81% of first-time buyers buy properties in their own county.