The Salary You Need to Buy a House in Every Irish County (2026)

We used the Central Bank's mortgage rules for first-time buyers, which is how most people actually finance a purchase:

• 10% deposit — the minimum for a first-time buyer.
• 4× loan-to-income — banks lend up to four times gross salary.
• So the salary needed = (median price × 90%) ÷ 4.

Prices are the median full-market-price sale in each county over the 12 months to April 2026 (61,714 sales). We excluded non-market sales (gifts, transfers between relatives). The May/June 2026 figures are still filling in due to filing lag, so we stopped at April for clean data.

Caveat: this is the salary to clear the mortgage hurdle — it ignores whether you can save the deposit, and assumes no existing debt. Real lenders also apply stress tests and exemptions (a slice of borrowers get above-4× approvals).

The single-income buyer is largely locked out of the cities. To buy alone in Dublin you need to earn €107,000 — well above the average full-time salary. Split evenly, a couple only needs €53,500 each, which is close to the national average wage. That's why the median Dublin buyer is now almost always two incomes.

Outside the commuter belt the maths softens considerably. A couple buying in Longford, Donegal or Leitrim needs only around €22,000 each — achievable on a single modest income, let alone two.

• The cities are a two-income game. Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare all demand €90k+ from a solo buyer — effectively out of reach without a partner or a large deposit.
• The deposit is the second wall. Even where the salary works, a Dublin buyer still needs €48,000 saved. The income hurdle and the deposit hurdle are different problems.
• The west and midlands remain genuinely attainable. Longford, Donegal, Leitrim and Roscommon all sit under €48k for a solo buyer — a single average income still works there.
• New-build scarcity bites hardest in the cities. Where you'd expect second-hand to be the cheaper option, Dublin flips it.

This is the flip side of our price-to-income ratio analysis — same data, framed as the number on your payslip. For current rates and how each bank treats bonus income, see our Irish mortgage lender comparison.