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Press Statement

Preasráiteas

16 June 2021

Characteristics of Residential Property Purchasers 2010-2019

The proportion of properties purchased jointly increased from 47% in 2010 to just over 62% in 2019
  • People buying properties are getting older – median age for joint purchases increased from 35 in 2010 to 38 in 2019, while the median age of sole purchasers rose from 34 to 42 years over the same period
  • In 2019, the highest median price paid by joint purchasers was €565,000 in Dún Laoghaire, while the lowest was €130,000 in Leitrim
  • Joint purchasers with a child or children purchased the most expensive properties, the median price of which was €295,000 in 2019
  • The median income of a joint purchaser was €81,500 in 2019, compared to a sole purchaser where the median income was €42,600
  • For sole purchasers, the highest gross incomes were in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (€57,600), Dublin City (€56,600) and Fingal (€52,900) while the lowest were in Roscommon (€29,700) and Donegal (€30,800)
  • Nine in ten people giving an address in Cork at the time of purchase bought a property in Cork – the highest proportion in the country

Go to release: Characteristics of Residential Property Purchasers 2010-2019

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (16 June 2021) released Characteristics of Residential Property Purchasers: 2010-2019. This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Publication . Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this experimental analysis. The aim of this Frontier Series is to provide insight into the type of individuals who are purchasing properties in Ireland across a range of themes such as price, age, income, gender and location.

Commenting on the release, Seán O’Connor, Statistician, said: “While the CSO provides a range of property related statistics such as planning permissions, new dwelling completions and the residential property price index, Characteristics of Residential Property Purchasers provides analysis into the types of individuals who are purchasing properties in Ireland over the period 2010-2019. The publication examines, amongst other topics, age and income of property buyers, and prices paid by different cohorts across time and at different geographic breakdowns.

Within today’s publication, some of the analysis highlights the following;

Breakdown of Purchases and Prices

In 2019, nationally, the proportion of properties purchased jointly stood at 62.2%. However, this varied by region, with the highest share being in South Dublin at 75.8% and lowest in Longford at 48.6%.

The highest median prices for sole purchasers were in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (€430,000), Dublin City (€325,000), Fingal (€295,000) and South Dublin (€290,000). These areas also had the highest median prices for joint purchasers at €565,000 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, €390,000 in Dublin City, €365,000 in Fingal and €357,000 in Wicklow. Leitrim had the lowest median price for sole purchasers at €90,400 in 2019 and for joint purchasers at €130,000. Please note, this publication does not attempt to provide measures of the overall price changes in the residential property market. Those interested in examining pure property price inflation should look at the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) release published today which provides figures for April 2021.

Age

The lowest median age of a sole purchaser in 2019 stood at 38 in Dublin City, compared to the highest of 50 in Kerry. Nationally the median age of a sole purchaser was 42. For joint purchasers, nationally the median age was 38 in 2019, with the lowest being in South Dublin at 35 and the highest in Kerry at 44.

Income

In 2019, the median income across cohorts was €84,900 for joint purchasers with child/children, €77,900 for joint purchasers without child/children, €43,000 for sole purchasers without child/children, €40,100 for sole purchasers with child/children.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown had the highest gross income for joint purchasers of €123,700 in 2019, followed by Dublin City (€101,200) and Fingal (€90,600). The lowest values for gross income for joint purchasers were in Longford (€59,300), Leitrim (€60,600) and Roscommon (€62,300).

For sole purchasers, the highest gross incomes were in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (€57,600), Dublin City (€56,600) and Fingal (€52,900) while the lowest were in Roscommon (€29,700) and Donegal (€30,800). The joint income was €66,100 higher than the sole income in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown in 2019, the largest difference in Ireland. Louth had the smallest difference of €25,200.

Address

Nine in ten people who denoted their address being located in Cork at time of purchase over the period 2010-2019 purchased a property in Cork, which was the highest proportion in the country. A similar trend was also found in Dublin.

One in four people who bought a property in Donegal gave an address outside the state, mostly in Northern Ireland.”

Editor's Note:

The results presented in this publication are based on a number of data sources:

  • The Person Income Register
  • Residential Property Price Index dataset 
  • Stamp Duty participant file
  • DSP Child Benefit dataset 

The linkage and analysis was undertaken by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for statistical purposes in line with the Statistics Act, 1993 and the CSO Data Protocol.

All data sources are pseudonymised prior to linking. The Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) is a unique number that enables individuals to access social welfare benefits, personal taxation and other public services in Ireland. The CSO removes the PPSN and replaces it with a Protected Identifier Key (PIK). The PIK is an encrypted and randomised number used by the CSO to enable linking of records across data sources and over time, while at the same time preserving privacy.

Given this publication has been released under the CSO’s Frontier output series, users are urged to read the Background and Methodology section to understand how the publication was complied, definitions used, along with any potential limitations in the analysis so figures are not misinterpreted

For further information contact:

Seán O'Connor (+353) 21 453 5295

or email sean.oconnor@cso.ie

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