Jan 22, 2007

High House Prices in Ireland

An International survey on housing affordability has rated Dublin’s housing as "seriously unaffordable", and is nearly double internationally accepted "affordable" levels.
The survey also showed that the cost, including mortgage interest, of the median priced house in Dublin has risen more than €350,000 compared to the Median Multiple in 1996. This equates to approximately six years of additional gross income for the median income household.

Overall Canada achieves the best performance, where its citizens only require 3.2 years of annual income to purchase a home. In the United States it takes 3.7 years; Britain 5.5 years; Ireland 5.7 years; and New Zealand 6 years. Australians fear the worst, crippled with the burden of 6.6 years of income on average to house themselves.

The Survey authors are Wendell Cox of the Wendell Cox Consultancy (Demographia) of metropolitan St Louis, USA and Hugh Pavletich, Pavletich Properties Ltd, Christchurch, New Zealand.