Skip to content
CentExact
Country

Borrowing

Debt-to-Income Ratio Calculator: Ireland

Work out your debt-to-income ratio and see it against the rules lenders actually use where you live, from the US 28/36 to Ireland's loan-to-income cap.

Reviewed by CentExactRates effective 1 sourceCalculated in your browser. Shared links include inputs.

Ireland: a multiple of income, set by the Central Bank

Ireland does not qualify borrowers on a debt-to-income ratio. The Central Bank's mortgage measures cap the loan itself at a multiple of gross annual income: four times for a first-time buyer, and three and a half times once you have owned a home before. Those limits are the same at every bank, because the Central Bank sets them rather than each lender.

Each limit carries an allowance. Up to 15% of a lender's first-time-buyer lending, and 15% of its second-and-subsequent-buyer lending, may be written above the multiple. An exception is therefore possible but rationed, and banks tend to spend the allowance on the strongest applications rather than the ones closest to the line.

Your existing debts still matter, but through a different door. They do not reduce the cap, which depends only on income; they reduce what the lender's own affordability assessment will actually offer you inside it. That is why the ratios on this page are shown as a guide here rather than a verdict: nothing in the Irish rules asks whether your total debt payments are 35% or 40% of income.

Worked exampleWorked example: €70,000 gross, first-time buyer

Four times €70,000 gives a ceiling of €280,000 on the loan. A second or subsequent buyer on the same income is capped at 3.5 times, or

€245,000, a €35,000 difference produced entirely by having owned before, with no reference to what either borrower already repays each month.

For how the calculation works, the formula behind it and what it leaves out, see the full guide. For help interpreting a result or comparing it with a quote or statement, read the questions and answers.

Data sources

Irish Central Bank mortgage lending limitsCentral Bank of IrelandWithin its effective period

Every document each dataset was read from, its notes and how the figures were checked are listed in the guide's data sources.

This calculator in other countries

Each country has its own rates, thresholds and rules, and its own page that runs the calculator on them and cites the official sources they came from.

CentExactCalculator publisher

CentExact publishes the calculation method, worked examples and available data sources. Automated checks cover reference calculations; they do not certify a result for your circumstances or imply approval by a lender or tax authority.

How we build and test our calculators

This calculator is for general information only and is not financial advice. Results are estimates based on the figures you enter and the stated formula; lenders and providers may round or calculate differently. Check any decision with the institution involved or a qualified adviser.