House Price to Income Ratio Ireland — All 26 Counties (2015–2025)

It's simple: median house price divided by mean annual earnings. A ratio of 5x means the typical home costs five years of the average salary. Internationally, anything above 5x is considered “severely unaffordable” by the Demographia Housing Affordability Survey.

We used CSO mean annual earnings (all sectors) per county for 2015–2024, and PPR median sale prices for the same years. Non-market-price sales were excluded.

Ireland's housing affordability crisis is not a perception problem — it's in the data. A few things stand out:

• There is no “affordable” county anymore. Even Leitrim at 4.16x sits above what most international housing experts would consider a healthy market. The cheapest counties in Ireland are “moderately unaffordable” at best.
• The commuter belt offers no escape. Wicklow (8.99x) and Kildare (7.82x) are more expensive relative to local incomes than Cork or Limerick. Moving out of Dublin doesn't necessarily improve your ratio.
• Wages have not kept pace. Mean earnings rose from €33,688 in 2015 to €44,816 in 2024 — a 33% increase. Median prices rose 103% in the same period. The gap is structural, not cyclical.
• The best relative value is in the west and midlands. Roscommon (4.39x), Longford (4.66x), Donegal (4.82x) and Mayo (4.92x) are the only counties below 5x — and all have decent earnings bases relative to their prices.

The mortgage lending rules (4x income for first-time buyers since January 2025) mean that even a couple on combined earnings of €90,000 can borrow just €360,000 — which rules them out of the median property in most counties without a large deposit. That's the real consequence of a 7.47x national ratio. See our Irish mortgage lender comparison for current rates by LTV band and how each lender treats bonus income.