Head of Credit, at online brokers MyMortgages.ie and author of The Mortgage Coach
- I’m a doctor (HSE) and my husband is a journalist (employee). Our combined income is €150,000 pa. I expect to qualify as a consultant in 2.5 years. We have saved €45,000. Given the housing crisis, we’re not sure if we should keep saving, and buy when we know our permanent location in 2.5 years (as I don’t know where I’ll get an appointment yet) or should we buy now in Dublin, to get on the ‘property ladder’. What would you recommend? How much could we borrow now, and how much could we be expected to borrow in 2.5 years?
You could borrow at least 3.5 times your combined income, which would be a loan amount of €525,000. You could potentially secure an exemption, given you are both high earners, meaning we could qualify for a loan amount of maybe 4.5 times your income, which would be €675,000. However, you would need to increase your deposit, as you would need 10% of the purchase price. If you are currently renting, I would give serious consideration to buying now as the rent you will pay in Dublin over the next 2.5 years will really add up. The average monthly rent in Dublin is approximately €2,000 so if you multiply this by 30 months, it means you could pay at least €60,000. The monthly repayment on €525,000 mortgage over 35 years at an interest rate of 2.2% would be much less at €1,793. If work dictates that you have to move county down the line, then you could rent out your Dublin property and the rent should cover the mortgage repayments, subject to any tax obligations.
