A first-time buyer couple with two incomes availing of the Government Help to Buy scheme still faces a considerable affordability gap when trying to buy a home in Dublin or surrounding counties, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) has said.The group’s midyear report on the residential market here includes an affordability analysis for a couple – a garda and a nurse, each with 10 years’ employment – on a combined income of €113,000 looking to buy different types of starter homes, including a three-bedroom semidetached house, in commuter counties around Dublin, and Cork.It found that buying couples with a 10 per cent deposit (and with the Central Bank’s mortgage rules) would face a shortfall of almost €25,000 in Kildare, €20,500 in Wicklow and €11,500 in Meath.Cork was the only county of the four where the couple’s finances would cover the cost of a three-bed semi.The prices used for the analysis were based on median purchase prices of three-bed semis in new housing developments in the four counties.Although the comparison did not include Dublin, median purchase prices are even higher there.Emer Byrne, vice-president of the SCSI, said the figures showed that affordability continued to be one of the defining challenges in the State’s residential market.“While a new three-bedroom semidetached home is affordable in Cork, new three-bedroom semidetached homes in Kildare, Wicklow and Meath remain out of reach for people on these salaries,” she said.“The pattern agents are seeing is a persistent divergence between income growth and property values, as the marginal gains in purchasing power are offset by property price growth wherever the demand is strongest.” [ In Ireland’s dysfunctional property market, the starter home has become the forever homeOpens in new window ] Byrne said that, in addition, “there are thousands of people on lower salaries who will not be able to buy and will require support”.The SCSI’s report also noted that while tenancy registration numbers were at record levels nationally, estate agents were reporting “sustained landlord sales activity” as smaller landlords exit the market.“The result is a gradual restructuring of the private rented sector. As smaller landlords exit, ownership is concentrating among large-scale and institutional providers,” it stated.Landlords complain that the Government’s new rent rules have made managing a small number of properties too financially onerous.The SCSI’s report contained a survey of estate agents and their outlook for the property market.The majority said they expected property prices in the State to increase by an average of 5 per cent over the next 12 months, a slight increase on the 4 per cent forecast six months ago.[ Rents in Ireland surged by highest level on record after new control system startedOpens in new window ]An overwhelming 92 per cent of 150 agents surveyed said they believed current residential property prices were either “expensive or very expensive” – up 8 per cent since a similar survey in January – while just 6 per cent believed they were currently fair value, down from 12 per cent a year ago.When asked where they believed we were in the market cycle, two out of three respondents (64 per cent) said they believed “prices are increasing but will level off soon” – while 18 per cent believed “they have peaked and should start to decline”. Most agents reported stable or easier lending conditions. “That steady flow of credit is one of the main forces keeping purchasers’ activity firm,” the report stated.