“It’s wild to me. I can’t believe it, and it’s one of the proudest things I’ve ever done in my life,” says Martha Gilheaney of buying her own home. She’s one of the growing number of first-time buyers doing it solo. Anecdotally, a growing number of these solo first-time buyers are women.
After years of renting in Dublin, business lecturer Gilheaney purchased her first home in 2024, a one-hundred-year-old farmhouse on 5.2 acres in her native Leitrim.
“I loved houses, and I always dreamed of having a house, but never in a realistic way. I never felt like I was in a position to be able to buy a house. I lived in Dublin, I work in Dublin, but there was also the fact that I knew I wouldn’t be able to buy in Dublin.”
When an ad for a property close to where she grew up entered the family WhatsApp group, something clicked.
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“There was this combination of, it was in Leitrim, where I’m from so that made it less daunting, it was a good price and I adored it – if it had just been a good house with a good price and it made sense but I didn’t love it, I don’t think I would have done this,” she says.
“It just ignited something in me. It got my imagination going straight away. I could see myself in this house, on this land, it seemed an incredible adventure. I always say the house chose me.”
In the run up to International Women’s Day on March 8th, it’s hard to believe that, until the 1970s, buying a home in Ireland was mostly the preserve of men. A single woman required the signature of a spouse or male relative to get a mortgage.
The “marriage bar” was a legal requirement that women working in State jobs resigned on marriage that remained in force until 1973, removing a woman’s individual economic power. Even when borrowing for a family home, a wife’s income was disregarded.
The primary role of a woman in Ireland was wife and mother, located firmly within the home – just not really on her own in her own home.
Solo female buyers now, however, exert considerable force in the housing market.
The house Gilheaney was interested in was advertised for €139,000 and she secured it for €165,000. With a 10 per cent deposit, she opted for a variable rate mortgage over 25 years. She is now in the throes of a renovation, beautifully documented on her Instagram account.
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“When I bought it, my sister said to me, ‘you realise Martha, you are probably the first woman in our family ever to buy a property on your own’. The interesting thing is she has since bought a house herself on her own too,” says Gilheaney.
Sisters
When it comes to buying a home, an increasing number of “sisters” are doing it for themselves, estate agents say.
“It was always my impression that we were dealing with more single women buyers than male ones,” says Dublin-based estate agent Owen Reilly.
Analysis of sales data at his agency over the past two years confirms this.
Last year, some 76 per cent of his buyers were first-time buyers – more than half of those first-time buyers were solo buyers, and more than half of those solo buyers – 53 per cent, were women, he says.
“I’ve looked at the previous year and it was 55 per cent [solo women], and what’s interesting is that we are starting to see a reversal of previous years.”
“I’m not surprised by the data because we see that and we feel that – I thought it might even be a little bit higher than 53 per cent because it’s noticeable to us that there are more single women buying than single men.”
“It’s been an ongoing discussion here for ten years that it seems a lot of men need to be motivated by their partner to buy a home, whereas women don’t seem to need as much motivation,” says Reilly.
“I’ve a feeling that the gap between the solo male buyer and female buyer will continue to grow in the next couple of years.”
The women buying in Dublin city from his agency work in tech predominantly, followed by law, financial services and accountancy, he says. Their average age last year was 37. So far this year, it’s 34.
They are viewing houses and apartments in Dublin 2, the location of a large number of tech, legal and financial and professional services firms, and more particularly in Dublin 8.
“The solo female buyer is quite dominant there. It’s walking distance to the city centre. They are interested in apartments and houses. They are motivated to buy, in general they are well informed and decisive. We think this trend is going to grow.”
“I don’t know their salaries, but at these prices many of them are six-figure salaries.”
“They are looking to maybe secure their futures by buying instead of renting and they are not waiting to ‘settle down’,” says Reilly.
Show me the money
First-time buyers account for the majority of home purchases right now, and solo buyers are a huge force, Banking and Payments Federation (BPFI) figures confirm.
They accounted for one in five first-time buyer mortgages on new properties in the first half of last year, according to the figures. More than a third of first-time buyers of second-hand properties bought alone.
Average first-time buyer mortgages are now at €314,810, their highest level since BPFI records began. With this cohort permitted to borrow just four times their income, a solo buyer would need to have earnings of about €80,000 and provide a deposit of about €31,500 to take out the average first-time buyer mortgage.
Those going solo are competing against couples who can borrow four times their combined income.
Margaret Barrett, managing director of broker Mortgage Navigators, says solo buyers are relying heavily on Central Bank loan-to-income “exceptions” to bolster their buying power.
Solo buyers accounted for 51 per cent of those taking out a mortgage with her company last year and seven in ten of those were first-time buyers, says Barrett.
Some 39 per cent of her solo buyers were women, she says. “My advice to all solo buyers is to ask the question, do I pass for an exception – it’s harder to buy on a solo income, so you need to know if there is extra lending power available to you at the outset and a broker can tell you if you are inside the guidelines or not,” says Barrett.
Banks are permitted to offer a limited number of exceptions enabling some homebuyers to borrow more than the standard limits. Bank of Ireland, AIB and PTSB have the most capacity to offer exceptions, she says.
Exceptions can vary by lender ranging from 4.25 up to 4.75 times your income. This can add tens of thousands to your buying power.
The median income of a solo buyer getting a mortgage with Mortgage Navigators last year was €82,000, says Barrett – however, many are earning well in excess of €100,000, she says. The average mortgage approved for solo buyers was €352,000, she says.
Their average mortgage term was 26 years – “I suspect they are slightly older so the term is shorter,” says Barrett.
When it comes to competing against a buying couple, in Dublin in particular, solo buyers are leaning on exceptions, and adjusting their sights.
“My price range was very different to two people,” says Dubliner Gráinne Gillett who purchased her first home in 2022 at the age of 34.
“They have two incomes, so obviously you can get outbid. But I knew what I couldn’t go above, so there was a definite cut off point for me,” she says.
Having trained as a midwife and worked in Australia for six years, she returned to Ireland moving back in with her parents to save.
“When I moved back I thought, I’m over 30 now and I need to kind of settle down and figure out what I want to do with my life.”
“Then Covid happened which helped me save a bit more and I was able to buy my own place,” says Gillett.
There were first-time buyer grants available for new-builds, but with so few of those in Dublin city, she wrote off that option early in her search.
“A lot of new-builds are more satellite-y, more out of Dublin. I wanted to be somewhere that was a bit more established and in town so that I wasn’t commuting to my house from somewhere else. I wanted to be near shops and public transport too,” says Gillett.
Having completed a BA in interior design, she wasn’t daunted by a “project” – and her search led her to a two-bed Victorian Cottage in the North Strand area of the city in need of work.
Having gone sale agreed, however, the lender changed their lending terms meaning she lost that mortgage and had to reapply. The waiting period was stressful, she says.
“I didn’t know how much time I would have to get it done. The estate agent kept ringing me, there was loads of pressure and I found that quite overwhelming,” says Gillett.
The mortgage approval process can be less forgiving of solo applicants, says Barrett. “A mortgage repayment will have a big impact on net disposable income, so my advice would be to tidy up before you try to get your foot on the property ladder,” says Barrett.
“Pay off any lending, keep credit card balances low, keep your current account in good order. Sometimes in a joint assessment, if one of you has poor savings habits and one is very good, that person can mitigate the risk, but you don’t have that option as a solo buyer,” she says.
For Gillett, the sale came together and her Instagram account tracks a two-and-a-half year, hands-on rollercoaster of a renovation where she has tackled everything from stripping wallpaper to knocking down walls, flooring, insulating, tiling and painting.
Having a home of her own was important to her. “I thought, I’m going to have my own house, so whatever happens, I do have my own home. I’m okay for the rest of my life. I did find that reassuring, even though financially it was very stressful trying to repay loans and mortgages and everything like that.
“Having your own home is just such a nice feeling – you think, ‘I live here, this is amazing’.
“A lot of my friends who are single, they’ve bought their own places now as well, so it’s very good to see.”
Martha Gilheaney’s mortgage repayments are much lower than her rent in Dublin, so the financial commitment doesn’t daunt her.
“I was doing it anyway in rent for a place that wasn’t my own, a place where I couldn’t make any decisions about the kind of couch, or pets or paint or anything,” says Gilheaney.
A vacant and derelict homes grant of €70,000 will be of huge assistance with renovation costs, but because it’s not paid until works are complete, she’s using a personal loan in the interim. A grant paid in stages would be better.
“Obviously if you are buying with someone else, it’s lovely and romantic and easier in many ways, but I don’t think I would feel as proud or as excited if I was sharing this. I’m walking around going, this is mine, this land is mine – none of it is lost on me at all. It feels like a huge achievement.”
