Standard home purchase now costs 7.7 times the average annual income — report

A report conducted by MyHome.ie has found that the standard home purchase now costs 7.7 times the average annual income.

Chief Economist at Davy Conall MacCoille, who authored the report, said that these stretched valuations may have been subjected to the Central Bank's decision to ease mortgage lending rules to four times income.

The findings suggest that potential home buyers are now stretched to the largest extent in over a decade.

Specifically, the report found that the average home sale in the third quarter of 2022 was €370,000, which is 7.7 times the average income of €48,000, and the highest multiple since 2009.

The report covers the last three months of 2022.

In addition, the report also found that the market is resilient, but it also stressed that the annual asking price inflation slowed to 6 per cent nationally during the period, when compared with October to December 2021.

Asking price inflation for Dublin was 3.6 per cent, while the figure was 7.6 per cent for the rest of the country outside Dublin.

The median asking price for a home nationally is now €330,000, while in the context of Dublin, the price is €436,000.

Elsewhere around the country, it is €283,000.

The report also noted that that asking prices tend to fall towards the end of the year.