New Homes: Your guide to buying your first home

A valuable step-by-step guide to buying a new home in testing times

Dream of owning your own place? State schemes are helping people buy a home. Photo shows new housing  at Cedar Court, Rathgoggin, Charleville, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

Buying your first home is a privilege in these times.

Back at the time when my father was buying a house in the 1950s, one steady wage coming into the household was enough to afford the cost of a starter home. This meant that most people who were lucky enough to be in a job (unemployment was high) could afford to buy a house on one household wage.