Mortgage Readiness (Ireland)
Central Bank LTI cap 4x first-time / 3.5x second-time. LTV 90 percent FTB. Stress test +2 percent. Help to Buy up to EUR 30,000.
Region: Ireland (en-IE). Currency: EUR. Rules: Revenue 2026.
Your gross pay before any deductions.
Your net monthly pay after PAYE, USC and PRSI.
Rent, loans, childcare, subscriptions and other regular costs.
Liquid savings available, excluding deposit set aside.
Cash deposit ready for the property purchase.
Lenders typically want at least 6-12 months in role.
ISO country code. Defaults to IE.
For buyers who want the numbers before the broker
Conor and Niamh rent in Dublin 8, have €35,000 saved as a deposit and keep circling the same question over dinner: are we actually ready to apply, or a year away? This tool answers it with arithmetic rather than optimism. Enter gross salary, monthly take-home, regular outgoings, savings, deposit, employment status and years in your current role, and it estimates the mortgage a lender could offer, the monthly repayment, and your loan-to-value and debt-to-income position.
The rules the estimate is built on
- Loan-to-income caps. Central Bank of Ireland rules let first-time buyers borrow up to 4 times gross annual income; second and subsequent buyers are capped at 3.5 times. Lenders may exceed these limits for only a minority of loans each year.
- Deposit rules. A 90% loan-to-value limit applies to a home you will live in, so you need at least a 10% deposit; buy-to-let borrowing requires far more.
- Stress testing. Lenders test whether you could still repay if rates rose, so the tool models repayments with an uplift of two percentage points rather than at today's rate alone.
- Help to Buy. First-time buyers of new builds can claim a tax refund of up to €30,000 towards the deposit, which can materially change the readiness verdict.
Why your payslip is the real application
Every figure a lender relies on — gross salary, net pay, pension deductions, overtime patterns — comes off your payslips and your Revenue Employment Detail Summary. Errors that cost you a few euro a week normally get noticed at mortgage time, when six months of payslips are read line by line. If your take-home looks lower than your salary suggests, fix the payroll question first: a corrected RPN or reclaimed emergency tax raises the very number your affordability is judged on.
Frequently asked questions
How much could I borrow on a €65,000 salary?
Under the Central Bank loan-to-income limits a first-time buyer can normally borrow up to four times gross income — €260,000 on €65,000 — while a second or subsequent buyer is capped at 3.5 times, or €227,500. Lenders can exceed the caps for a limited share of their lending each year, but an application inside the limits is far more predictable.
Do lenders look at gross salary or take-home pay?
Both, for different jobs. The loan-to-income cap is set against gross income, but repayment capacity is assessed against your net pay and outgoings — which is why this tool asks for monthly take-home and monthly commitments as well as gross. Consistent savings and clean current-account behaviour matter alongside the headline multiples.
What is the Help to Buy scheme worth?
Help to Buy can refund income tax and DIRT you have paid, up to €30,000, towards the purchase or self-build of a new home by first-time buyers. It applies to new builds rather than second-hand homes, and the refund forms part of your deposit rather than extra spending power on top of it.
Why does the tool ask about employment status and years in role?
PAYE applicants generally need to be past probation with recent payslips and an Employment Detail Summary to evidence income, while self-employed and contract applicants are usually asked for two or more years of accounts or certified income. Short tenure does not bar you, but it changes what documentation a lender will want.
Get your payslips lender-ready
Before you gather six months of payslips for a broker, run one through the Irish payslip checker and make sure the PAYE, USC and PRSI on it are right — a clean payslip file makes for a faster approval.
Check my Irish payslip