February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Key workers such as teachers, firefighters, police officers, and nurses have been priced out of the housing market in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Waterford, with Limerick the only city where key-public sector workers might be able to afford to buy an average house.
A similar survey three years ago showed that Dublin and Galway then were the only unaffordable cities.
The survey by Bank of Scotland’s retail arm Halifax showed that wages are falling further behind house prices. While houses rose in price by 43 percent in Dublin between March 2003 and March 2006, wages for public sector key workers rose by only 17 percent. House prices are forecasted to rise by 13 percent this year and a further 7 percent next year.
The survey used a generous benchmark of affordability of five times average earnings — higher than that recommended by Irish financial regulators of around four to four and a half times earnings.
Worst affected are nurses and firefighters who earn