Solo il 20% dei cittadini irlandesi più ricchi può permettersi di affittare un appartamento, dicono i geometri
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2025/12/09/only-top-20-of-irish-earners-can-afford-to-rent-an-apartment-surveyors-say/
di RossaDeVereMcNally
27 commenti
Verily I suppose the other 80% should pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
The only people now who can afford to rent, are already well-off enough to own. Or they are companies renting accommodation for staff.
950.- we paid 20 years ago for a one bedroom in D8, today the very same apartment goes for 2400.-, and thank the almighty, we bought our place back in 2007, we could not afford to live anywhere these days…..
I make 140k a year and have apartments in Dublin, Castlebar and Brussels.
Is there a reason they have not increased the cap of €500,000 to be eligible for the HTB scheme for first time buyers?
So many are now being priced out of being eligible to avail of this and I don’t understand why the government did not increase the cap.
>Only the top 20 per cent of earners can afford to [rent](https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/renting/) an average [apartment](https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/apartment/) built in Ireland in 2025, while just the top 40 per cent of earners can afford to buy one
How are they calculating these figures because it doesn’t make any sense to say twice as many people can afford to buy as to rent? I lived in an apartment for years in Dublin and I am certainly not in the top 20%
But the data bros told me top earners are being taxed into oblivion?
Just yesterday we were being told on here Northern Ireland should be delighted to be a part of this. Today, a stream of articles telling us that the whole economic picture is a skewed picture where the well off are doing very well. The rest? Not so great right now.
Which is why the issue of a UI will be pressed on the peasants as a political decision and economics used only as a smokescreen. They’ll be asked to fall into their political buckets.
We used to live in an apartment complex and our neighbours would change every 1 to 2 years. It was a small two bedroom apartment which always had at least 3 people living their sometimes 4.
I remember someone was subletting their bed in a shared room and advertised it within the whatsapp group. It was ~€600 a month. the old folk not impacted by the rental market god damn nearly lost their minds when they realised it wasn’t a room.
Anyway, grim times.
Very few people rent on their own. Ireland doesn’t like one bed apartments.
I make 87K per year and I cannot even rent because I have no references and I’m on a contract so no job security. Proper savings and investments too. It’s a 🦆ing disgrace. People who work deserve to live. I’m stuck living with my parents even-though my income is bigger than their combined
This shows how much social welfare is subsiding the market
The real kicker is even if you’re lucky enough to be in the top 20%, many people you love and care about will not be so lucky. Seeing them suffer or emigrate sucks. This is why I don’t really understand anyone who supports the statue quo in Ireland. It doesn’t feel good to live in a society where most people are desperate, or struggling, even if you yourself are not.
Yep, I’m technically just about a top 10% earner but was only financially viable for me to rent a (admittedly nice) one bed apartment once I moved in with my partner, she’s a lower income earner but it wasn’t viable till we decided to rent together. The amounts needed are crazy.
Many at the company I’m at, even those earning more, are in the same boat, if they’re single they have to share an apartment/house with others
I’m not sure how an economy can function like that – infrastructure is clearly broken / maxed out.
I live in a one bed apartment in Edinburgh city centre, walking distance from everything for £900 a month. Wouldn’t get you a night stay in Dublin these days
Meanwhile /r/ireland continually shits over workers charging prices required to live in Dublin, and protesting about threats to their livelihood.
We, of all nations, had an opportunity to reshape our country.
What do we do with that? Not enough.
There’s a generation of retirees that have alot to answer for. Obviously not all, but they ought to have a the decency to feel shame.
High streets and small businesses would be absolutely booming if people weren’t spending so much on rent
If I’m correct, most apartments are built to this luxury appeal ? (Bland but loads of natural light and floar spaces)
Why havent I seen the old ‘5 story , 3 bedroom, kitchen/living room, bathroom outside of building stairway access ‘ style apartmentsbeing built?
They are practical af and cheap per sq m floorspace. Maybe could get more appealing look to get a mixed social groups in them and add more facilities on ground floor
Really highlights how dysfunctional the rental market is.
We need more rental properties.
So I was struggling to make sense of this until I dug deeper.
They say the construction cost of 2 bed apartment ranges from 480k to 650k, but if you go to [daft.ie](http://daft.ie) and filter to 2 bed apartments, there are 990 apartments. If you filter to 300k or lower, you have just under half that, while if you filter to 325k or lower you have a good bit more than half of that. This puts the median at something like 305k I would guess, well below the lower end of the range this article claims.
Obviously that is all apartments and not new builds but lots of places are getting built and the sale prices aren’t wildly more expensive than second hand – there are dozens of new build 2 bed apartments listed for 350k or under.
So I dug into the actual report, and the number they’re quoting is specifically for higher rise apartments up to 15 floors, while lower rise apartments (which they define as under 8 stories and are far more common) are averaging 360k in Dublin.
Their breakdown of “building costs” in the report for a typical apartment also includes 50k of profit margin, along with 25k of financing costs, another 10k of “contingency”, 8k estate agent fees for selling the thing etc. – the actual cost of building is less than half of the headline number they quote.
Fundamentally this looks like an industry body massaging the numbers because they want the government to increase Help to Buy thresholds because that money ultimately ends up going to them. And of course newspapers are running with it because it makes for a great ragebait headline.
Paid 300 euro a month for a perfectly fine apartment in Dorset street when i was a student around 2010.
Nothing about what is happening is normal and dont let the government gaslight you. Students and young people now should be out protesting at the dail every day. Nobody else is going to fight their interests.
I wonder what the tipping point is.
When will young professionals realise they are completely fuvked here. I can see riots about this in a few years. The concentration of asset wealth and the lack of residential construction will render your salary moot at some point in the near future, it’ll be a younger geberation revolt against the elite. And rightly so
54% of all rentals in Ireland received subsidies to fund their rent… (ESRI Report)
This is the biggest waste of money, and driving up anyone else not eligible for support
How can you let the market decide when everyone isn’t playing the same game equally?
Need the government to build multiple apartment buildings throughout the urban centers in the country
Crazy situation. But I’m sure FG bots will be along momentarily to tell us we’re wealthier than ever, bestest economy, bootstraps, “rent caps don’t work!!” “are you poor? Just retrain and get a high paying job in IT like I did” “I got a house after saving my ass off” (and bank of Mummy and Daddy) etc etc
Meanwhile partner is paying €500pm rent for a nice one bed apartment in a small town outside Stuttgart city.