EVEN WITH GOVERNMENT supports, first-time buyers need a combined salary of between €84,000 and €129,000 to be in with a chance of purchasing an apartment.

That’s according to a new study into construction costs in the sector by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland.

The new report has found that the total development costs of delivering urban medium rise apartments in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway have increased by between 4% and 6% over the past five years.

The report has found that they have risen over the last five years, but the amount greatly differs depending on the location of the new apartments.

In suburban areas, the cost to build a medium rise apartment block – which is considered to range between three and eight storeys – has risen by 32%.

This means those apartments could cost anywhere from €411,000 to €541,000.

However, apartments newly built in urban areas have increased by around 4% to 6% since 2021.

The total development costs for the upper range goes from €663K to €680K per two-bed apartment.

“While the cost of what was the cheapest apartment to build has increased by the most, the cost of the more expensive apartments has eased considerably,” said Paul Mitchell, a chartered quantity surveyor and one of the co-authors of the report.

The report – titled The Real Costs of New Apartment Delivery 2025′ – also found that state interventions are playing a “critical role” in closing the financial viability gap for builders.

One of the measures for Housing Minister James Browne over the past year has been trying to reduce the costs of apartments, by introducing a a tax cut for property developers and by changing apartment standards to make them more attractive to build. The latter measure has faced a judicial review challenge in the High Court.

Today’s report is based on data covering over 10,700 apartments across three different categories in four different cities.

Mitchell said the findings show that a more standardised apartment typology is starting to emerge.

“Apartment delivery costs comprise five main buckets as it were,” Mitchell said.

These include construction costs, or hard costs, which make up to 50% of the overall cost. The remainder are due to site costs and soft costs such as professional fees and financing.

Mitchell added that the disparity in costs for different types of departments reflects a major shift which is taking place in the evolution of design and delivery.

A previous report by the organisation in 2021 didn’t have cost rental apartments, whereas “now cost rental makes up half of the apartments in this data set”, Mitchell explained.

“We are seeing a shift away from suburban apartments to duplexes to achieve required density, while the focus with apartment construction is on building more efficient larger schemes. This is a really positive development in the industry.”