A CSO Frontier Series Output- What is this?
This report, ‘Characteristics of Residential Property Purchasers, 2010-2019’, analyses data on people who purchased a residential property in Ireland and provides insights into the housing market across several themes.
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This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release. CSO Frontier Series may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources. Publishing outputs under the Frontier Series allows the CSO to provide useful new information to users and get informed feedback on these new methods and outputs whilst at the same time make sure that the limitations are well explained and understood. In using the increasingly varied sources of data available, the CSO must ensure that we continue to protect and secure data. Our aim is to ensure that citizens can live in an informed society while at the same time ensuring adherence to all relevant data protection legislation. Prior to reading this publication users should note some of the limitations in the data sources. Across the entire period on average 5.5% of records could not be assigned a Protected Identifier Key (PIK). From 2010 to 2015 this average was 9.0% and from 2016 onwards the average drops to 0.3%. Therefore, care must be taken in interpreting the data, particularly over the period 2010-2015. The ability to not assign a PIK means certain records cannot be assigned information such as age, gender, income or indicate whether they had a child at time of purchase. Therefore, statistics such as the median age can potentially be distorted because of records which are not randomly missing. For example, older females were more likely to be missing a PIK. Statistical methods to correct this (i.e. imputation) were not successful and therefore no correction was made. While the CSO still believes publishing this data provides valuable insights into the type of individuals who are purchasing properties in Ireland, care should be taken when interpreting results, over time, across cohorts and at some lower geographical levels. Moreover, given some of the limitations, a breakdown of buyer type is only available from 2016 onwards. Futhermore, income analysis is only available from 2012 onwards. For further information on the data sources, linking procedures and limitations of this report, see the Background and Methodology section. |
The analysis focuses on the volume and price of property transactions for different cohorts. A sole purchaser refers to one person purchasing a property. A joint purchaser refers to two or more persons coming together to purchase a property. From 2016 onwards, a breakdown is also available of those purchasers who did and did not have a child at the time of purchase. Additional insights are also provided across themes of age, gender, and income. Analysis on the region the purchaser provided at the time of purchase and where the property purchased is located is also examined.
Joint purchasers took up a larger share of the residential property market in 2019 compared with 2010. The proportion of properties which were purchased jointly increased from 47.0% in 2010 to 62.2% in 2019.
In 2019, a joint purchaser with a child/children had the highest median price at €295,000.
People who are buying properties are getting older with the median age rising from 35 years in 2010 to 38 years by 2019. For sole purchasers, the median age rose from 34 to 42 years between 2010 and 2019 compared with a rise from 35 to 38 years for a joint purchaser.
Sole purchasers had a lower median income of €42,600 compared with a median of €81,500 for the combined income of joint purchasers in 2019. Income also varied by region. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (€123,700) and Dublin City (€101,200) had the highest income value for joint purchasers, while Longford (€59,300) and Leitrim (€60,600) had the lowest. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (€57,600) and Dublin City (€56,600) had the highest median income values for sole purchasers, while Roscommon (€29,700) and Donegal (€30,800) had the lowest.
Examining the location that purchasers gave during the property transaction, this analysis notes from 2010 to 2019, 88.9% of purchasers who purchased in Cork, gave their location as being in Cork. While 25.7% of purchasers in Donegal gave their location as being based outside Ireland (Northern Ireland being the greatest share).
This report has been complied utilising administrative data and is an example of the policy relevant research projects the CSO are developing as part of its leadership role of the Irish Statistical System. The goal in the CSO is to maximise the variety and volume of high quality information provided to citizens, businesses and the Government which forms the foundation for evidence-based decision-making and the basis for accountability. The CSO is in a unique position to access and link administrative data held by Government Departments and Agencies for statistical use only by using the Statistics Act 1993, in compliance with all relevant data protection legislation.
In order to understand the methodologies adopted in this publication and the limitations of the analysis users are urged to read the Background and Methodology section.
The data within this report is available on PXStat
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