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There’s a couple in Dublin; let’s call them Aoife and Ciarán. They’re in their early 40s, have two children in primary school, and have been renting the same three-bedroom semi-detached house for the past eight years. They’ve talked about buying a house for almost as long as they’ve been together. But between rising prices, a competitive market, and the sheer grind of saving a deposit while paying rent, it just hasn’t happened yet.
They’re not unusual. In fact, they’re increasingly the norm.
New data from Irish Mortgage Advisors (IMA) paints a striking picture of how dramatically the age of homeownership in Ireland has shifted and raises serious questions about what that means for the growing number of families still renting well into middle age.
Buying a Home Is a Middle-Aged Milestone Now
According to IMA’s analysis of mortgage protection insurance policies sold in 2025, a full 92% of policies were taken out by people aged 30 or older.
Almost half (44%) of all mortgage protection policies were sold to people in their 30s, making them the most active age group. A further 34% went to buyers in their 40s. And perhaps most strikingly, one in eight policies, 12.5%, were taken out by people in their 50s.
To understand just how much has changed, consider this: in 2004, 60% of first-time buyers in Ireland were under the age of 30. By the first half of 2023, that figure had collapsed to just one in five. The median age of a house buyer in Ireland has risen from 35 in 2010 to 40 today.
The steep house price inflation of recent years, along with the severe shortage of housing, is likely behind this.
That’s putting it mildly. Ireland’s housing market has become one of the most pressurised in Europe. Supply has chronically lagged demand, and property prices in many parts of the country have long since outpaced what a standard dual income can comfortably support for a deposit. The result is a generation, or arguably two, who are buying homes later, renting longer, and carrying financial vulnerabilities that often go unaddressed.
The Renters Who Are Flying Without a Net
Here’s the issue that IMA is most concerned about when people take out a mortgage: the lender requires mortgage protection insurance as a condition of approval. It’s essentially a forced moment of financial planning. Buyers must stop and ask what happens to my family if I die or become seriously ill ? The insurance policy answers that question.
Renters face no such requirement. And so, for many of them, the question never gets asked at all.
This might not have been a major societal concern when renting was primarily the domain of young people in their 20s, between college and homeownership. But Ireland’s rental landscape has shifted considerably. Census data shows the number of private renters aged 60 to 64 doubled between 2011 and 2022. Those aged 55 to 59 increased by 85% over the same period. Renters in the 50 to 54 bracket grew by 71%, while those aged 45 to 49 increased by 66%.
These aren’t footloose young professionals between apartments. Many are families with people with mortgages of a different kind, so to speak: children to raise, school runs to do, lives built around a rental home that offers no legal guarantee of long-term tenure.
“Whether you’re paying a mortgage or paying rent, the consequences of serious illness or death within a household are just as significant,” Grant said. “The main difference is that renters have fewer legal protections, no equity buffer, and no guaranteed long-term tenure. And if the household income is affected, the surviving partner may never be in a position to qualify for a mortgage or even pay the bills on one income.”
The Uncomfortable Questions Nobody Is Asking
IMA says that mortgage advisors regularly meet couples who have been renting for years and are only then, at the point of finally applying for a mortgage, beginning to think about financial protection. The lender requires it, so they get it. But until that moment, many have never seriously considered what would happen to their family if one of them were to die or become critically ill.
For renters, that moment may never come or may come too late.
The organisation is urging renters, particularly those with children, to ask themselves some uncomfortable but necessary questions:
If something happened to one of us, could the other manage the rent and household costs alone? Would we qualify for a mortgage on a single income? Do we have savings or any support structure for an emergency? And are there affordable ways to build some protection into our monthly budget?
These aren’t dramatic questions. They’re the kind of planning conversations that any financial advisor would consider routine, yet for renters, they’re rarely prompted by anyone or anything in the system.
Protection Isn’t Just for Mortgage Holders
There’s a lingering perception in Ireland, as in many countries, that life cover and serious illness insurance are products for people with mortgages. They’re the things you buy when you sign on the dotted line for a house, not before, and not unless.
That perception, IMA argues, is both outdated and dangerous.
The reality is that life insurance and income protection products don’t care whether you rent or own. What they care about is whether your family would be financially secure if your income disappeared tomorrow. For a renting family with young children, that question is, if anything, more urgent, not less, than for a homeowning family with an asset and equity behind them.
A homeowner who dies may leave their partner with a paid-off property and a degree of financial stability. A renter who dies may leave their partner scrambling to cover rent, bills, and childcare costs with a fraction of the household income in a rental market where landlords can, and frequently do, terminate tenancies.
A Generational Warning
There is something about looking at Ireland’s rental statistics alongside its mortgage data. A country that once prided itself on high rates of homeownership is now watching significant portions of its middle-aged population remain renters, not by choice but by circumstance.
The house may eventually come for many of them. But the years of renting without financial protection are years of real exposure. A serious illness at 42 or a bereavement at 47 doesn’t wait until the mortgage comes through.
IMA’s message is straightforward: get advice now, not when the lender forces the issue. If you’re renting with dependents, treat your financial security with the same seriousness a homeowner would because the risks you face are just as real, even if no one is requiring you to address them.
