{"id":409895,"date":"2026-03-29T11:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T11:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/409895\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T11:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T11:19:10","slug":"average-age-of-homebuyers-in-ireland-in-2024-was-40-there-is-one-reason-for-this-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/409895\/","title":{"rendered":"Average age of homebuyers in Ireland in 2024 was 40. There is one reason for this \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland has finally caught on to the concept of density, specifically the need to build higher-density housing<\/a>. Conversely the people who can afford to buy new homes are older and wealthier, suggesting the affordability metrics haven\u2019t improved. If anything, they appear to have got worse.<\/p>\n

The Central Statistics Office<\/a>\u2019s (CSO) latest Housing Trends in Ireland report brings together a range of metrics on the State\u2019s most pressing challenge. <\/p>\n

While noting that new home completions rose by 20 per cent to 36,000 units last year and that planning permissions were similarly on an upward trajectory, the agency highlights a shift in focus from one-off housing to more compact development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new housing market has been increasingly focused on higher-density housing over the last number of years, reflecting population growth in urban areas and relatively fewer one-off housing,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

In 2025, about half of the new homes built were part of housing estates while a further third were apartments<\/a>, it said. Ten years earlier, in 2015, nearly half of new builds were one-off houses while just 9 per cent were apartments.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A new CSO report debunks the vacant property narrativeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s when you get to who is buying these homes that the picture darkens. Home ownership rates among those aged 25-39, once considered a prime homeowning age, has collapsed in recent decades. The CSO says the average age of people who bought homes in Ireland in 2024 was 40, the highest on record. In south Dublin<\/a>, it was 37, whereas in Kerry<\/a> it was 45. <\/p>\n

The reason for the increasing age profile of buyers is, of course, cost. <\/p>\n

According to the CSO\u2019s data bank, the average price of a home purchased nationally in the 12 months to January was \u20ac432,082 while the average in Dublin was \u20ac592,594. These prices are a multiple of average incomes, pointing to a widening affordability gap.<\/p>\n

The CSO\u2019s report indicates that nearly six in 10 homes purchased in 2024 were bought by couples, reflecting the fact that, in the main, prospective buyers need two incomes. <\/p>\n

The average income per transaction among home buyers (which could be a couple or a single individual) was \u20ac75,600 in 2022. Just two years later it has risen to \u20ac84,400. <\/p>\n

Nearly three decades into a housing crisis, and with several high-profile government plans having come and gone, our housing profile still makes for grim reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland has finally caught on to the concept of density, specifically the need to build higher-density housing. Conversely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[6294,79,2355,1412,52,18,24078,8752,19,17,957],"class_list":["post-409895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apartment","tag-business","tag-cantillon","tag-central-statistics-office","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-first-time-buyer","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kerry"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116312196897295091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}