‘We want to buy here, but the prices are just huge’

A YOUNG man from the Ratoath area who is saving with his partner for a deposit for a house says it is absolutely impossible for an average couple with average jobs to buy a house in the Ratoath area.

“We are both living at home with our folks and saving for a deposit but when we put our salaries into a mortgage calculator, all we can borrow is €250,000 - the only houses we see around here are €400,000,” he said.

“Of my friends around here, only those with extremely good jobs who have done very well for themselves have managed to buy houses. If you ask any of my other friends with average jobs, they'd laugh in your face at the idea of being able to afford a house here.

“Many people like us have bought houses in places like Wexford because they cannot afford the prices here.

“I've lived in this area 26 years and my girlfriend has lived her all her life. We want to buy here, but the prices are just huge.

“We had been hoping to go to the bank at the end of this year, but we now think we will be laughed out the door.

“We are both in full time jobs, we are living with our parents to raise a deposit, but the deposit we need keeps growing as prices rise.

“Because we can only borrow so much, we will need a deposit of around €100,000. It is very, very difficult.”

“If we were renting, we would be dipping into our savings and we'd never have a chance at all.”

“I lived in the US for ten years and paid $1,000 rent a month to live 20 minutes walk away from the city. Here it is a 35 minute drive to the city and rents are nearly double that.

“We are hoping to buy a house, but it looks more and more difficult that we can buy around here,” he said.