Survey finds 60% of young couples in Dun Laoghaire area priced out of housing market

Up to 60 per cent of young couples in the capital's most affluent suburbs are unable to afford their own home, according to a survey by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

The survey, part of the council's housing strategy, projected the number of new households likely to form in the borough up to 2004 and, using estimations for household income, calculated that this year more than half of young couples would not be able to buy their own homes.

The survey covered south-east Co Dublin, the area administered by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which includes some of the State's wealthiest suburbs, but also some of its most expensive homes.

The area extends from the eastern side of Rathfarnham to the coast, and from Merrion Gates to Shankill.

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council estimated that of 1,750 new households created this year, 921 will not be able to buy their own homes. The figures are expected to worsen over the next three years.

The cost of houses in the area has already affected the housing waiting list, which stands at 2,154 households.

According to the Labour Party spokesman on the environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore TD, the situation is acute and is unlikely to be ameliorated despite the requirement that up to 20 per cent of all new developments must be handed over to the county council for social and affordable housing.

Mr Gilmore described the housing strategy produced by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as "the first official estimate of the number of young families in the area who have been priced out of the housing market".

The implications of the situation would touch almost every family in the area. While householders might take solace in the rapid increases in the value of their homes, he warned, it was their children who would pay the price.