For many first time buyers, their only hope of ever buying a home is with a generous injection of outside cash, usually offered by a close relative.
In episode two of Find Me A Home, we meet retired midwife Clíona who is making the sacrifice of selling up her home in Greystones to help her daughter and family put down a deposit to buy their first home.
Clíona has a canny plan to sell up in Greystones, and from the sale of her house buy a smaller house in a more affordable part of the country.
"Believe it or not, but I'm actually only here 4 years" Clíona says. "And I had no plans to move. But just listening to my daughter and her husband who are renting here in Greystones, they haven't a hope of getting on the property ladder."
"Their rent is so high that they can't save. A lot of my friends had concerns at the beginning. They thought I mad to be uprooting myself at my age again. But most of these people have come around and accepted it.
“With very high rent and childcare expenses they haven’t a hope of saving for a deposit. There must be something I can do to help” Clíona says.
The affordability list in Ireland
Meanwhile across Ireland, counties Longford and Leitrim are currently the top of the list for affordability. In Episode 2, Estate agent Des Wynne in Drummkeeran, Co. Leitrim takes us on a tour of some of the bargain bungalows he has for sale...some for as little as €20,000!
“It’s the cheapest house in Ireland at the price of a car parking space in Dublin” Des jokes.
But while these houses are going for much less than city houses, he recognises that any house purchase is a big thing for the Irish.
"A lot of Irish people are obsessed with property" he says.
"It's definitely an emotional buy. It's the biggest investment of one's life. People would to buy with their heart but their head actually dictates what they can actually do. Because it is quite difficult to get the deposit with the new deposit rules in Ireland. You need a lot of savings and a lot of hard work".
Episode 2 of Find Me a Home airs tomorrow night, Thursday the 8th of September at 8:30pm on RTÉ One. Missed Episode 1? Catch up by watching it on RTÉ Player here.
