Apartment prices take off

SEPTEMBER’S selling season and new product launches are in full swing - but the message for first-time buyers is ‘prepare to leave town’.

City and even suburban apartment prices are forcing first-time buyers in Cork and Dublin to the satellite towns and burgeoning villages and condemning them to long commutes.

Dublin buyers already know this to their cost. Now, Cork is in hot pursuit with an exodus of young buyers made certain by rocketing prices.