Switcher.ie said that Dún Laoghaire is the least affordable place and could take up to 27.9 years to save for a downpayment, while it could take 13.5 years to save for a deposit for a home in Wicklow.
At the other end of the scale, Dún Laoghaire, Wicklow, Dublin, Kildare, South Dublin, Fingal, Dublin City, Galway City, Meath and Louth are the 10 least affordable places and take, on average, 9.8 years to save for a deposit. It said that despite mortgage activity declining last year, first-time buyer mortgages remained buoyant accounting for around 63% of the market.
Switcher.ie said this means the type of housing that qualifies first time buyers for many help-to-buy schemes has been built in the most expensive areas, with Dún Laoghaire, Dublin and Kildare attracting most of the new builds in 2023 and places like Leitrim, Longford and Roscommon only seeing a fraction of the new house builds.