Ireland's Housing Affordability Crisis: Price-to-Income Ratios by County (2015–2024)
A home in Dublin now costs 9 times the average annual salary. A decade ago, it was 7.6x. We combined CSO earnings data with 769,000+ Property Price Register sales to calculate the price-to-income ratio for every county in Ireland — and track how it's changed since 2015.
The price-to-income ratio is the clearest single measure of housing affordability. A ratio of 3–4x is generally considered healthy. Ireland's national ratio hit 7.47x in 2024. Not a single county is below 4x any more.
What Is the Price-to-Income Ratio?
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.
Most Unaffordable
Dublin 9.04x
€445k median / €49k earnings
Most Affordable
Leitrim 4.16x
€171k median / €41k earnings
National Average 2024
7.47x
Up from 4.9x in 2015
The National Trend: A Decade of Deterioration
In 2015, the national price-to-income ratio was 4.9x — borderline affordable by international standards. By 2024 it's 7.47x. Prices rose 103% over the decade while wages rose just 33%. The brief dip in 2020 was Covid-driven (earnings data was distorted by pandemic payments) and reversed almost immediately.
Sources: CSO earnings data & Property Price Register. Red dashed line = internationally “severely unaffordable” threshold.
Every County Ranked: 2024
Every single county in Ireland is now above the internationally “severely unaffordable” threshold of 5x. Dublin (9.04x) and Wicklow (8.99x) sit at the top. Even Leitrim at 4.16x — the “most affordable” county — was considered seriously unaffordable in most of the world just a generation ago.
Red = 8x+, Amber = 7–8x, Purple = 6–7x, Green = under 6x. Red dashed line = 5x threshold.
| # | County | Median Price | Mean Earnings | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dublin | €445,000 | €49,224 | 9.04x |
| 2 | Wicklow | €418,402 | €46,527 | 8.99x |
| 3 | Kildare | €378,855 | €48,431 | 7.82x |
| 4 | Meath | €340,000 | €46,272 | 7.35x |
| 5 | Galway | €321,000 | €43,995 | 7.3x |
| 6 | Louth | €297,357 | €41,449 | 7.17x |
| 7 | Kilkenny | €300,000 | €43,132 | 6.96x |
| 8 | Cork | €321,586 | €46,416 | 6.93x |
| 9 | Wexford | €268,722 | €39,409 | 6.82x |
| 10 | Westmeath | €280,000 | €43,072 | 6.5x |
| 11 | Kerry | €250,000 | €38,906 | 6.43x |
| 12 | Limerick | €280,000 | €44,498 | 6.29x |
| 13 | Waterford | €265,695 | €42,460 | 6.26x |
| 14 | Carlow | €252,000 | €40,363 | 6.24x |
| 15 | Laois | €266,536 | €43,230 | 6.17x |
| 16 | Clare | €270,000 | €44,081 | 6.13x |
| 17 | Offaly | €249,000 | €41,464 | 6.01x |
| 18 | Monaghan | €210,000 | €37,867 | 5.55x |
| 19 | Tipperary | €220,000 | €41,338 | 5.32x |
| 20 | Sligo | €225,000 | €42,468 | 5.3x |
| 21 | Cavan | €205,000 | €40,596 | 5.05x |
| 22 | Mayo | €200,000 | €40,657 | 4.92x |
| 23 | Donegal | €178,000 | €36,967 | 4.82x |
| 24 | Longford | €181,000 | €38,857 | 4.66x |
| 25 | Roscommon | €185,000 | €42,150 | 4.39x |
| 26 | Leitrim | €171,403 | €41,162 | 4.16x |
How We Got Here: 2015–2024
The most striking thing in this chart isn't Dublin — it's the commuter belt. Wicklow briefly overtook Dublin as the least affordable county in Ireland in 2021–2022, before Dublin reasserted itself. Cork, Galway, and Limerick have all deteriorated dramatically. Even Limerick — once a genuine alternative to Dublin — is now at 6.3x.
Sources: CSO mean annual earnings (all NACE sectors) & PPR median sale prices.
What This Means
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 (3.5x income) mean that even a couple on combined earnings of €90,000 can borrow just €315,000 — which rules them out of the median property in 20 of 26 counties without a large deposit. That's the real consequence of a 7.47x national ratio.
See what's selling in your county
Search 769,000+ actual sale prices from the Property Price Register.
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