Housing still unaffordable for key workers

Key public sector workers - nurses, fire-fighters, Gardai and teachers - are still finding it difficult to afford housing in Ireland.

In the second survey looking at the affordability of housing for the country's key public sector workers, Halifax has found the housing situation still very difficult for the vast majority.

The Halifax survey looks at the average salaries of key public sector workers and compares them to second hand house prices in the country's main cities - Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford - as well as locations outside of these cities.

Fire fighters and nurses are still the worst affected in the survey. Average house prices are still over 13 times times for their salaries in Dublin.

For a house in Dublin to be deemed affordable for a nurse, the price would have to be €171,000. The actual price is €473,479. For Gardai and secondary school teachers, the average house price would have to be €260,000.

Limerick and Waterford are the two most affordable cities in Ireland, while Dublin is the least affordable.

Halifax says that with the correction in house prices in the first half of 2007, affordability in all of the major cities has improved since the same time last year, with the biggest improvement in Dublin.

Only the smaller towns and rural areas of the country have seen housing affordability decline as they have been less affected by the house price correction.

'Even though the Government has pledged more affordable and social housing units, this is bound to be impacted by the slowdown in house building in Ireland, 'commented Gabriel Bannigan, Head of Retail and Intermediary Banking at Halifax.

'We need to look at other ways, such as payment schemes, to ease the burden as a banking industry in conjunction with the Government,' he added.