Prospective Waterford home buyers could face 99-year wait for new build, according to study
'One Million Homes' uses publicly available data to estimate how long 18-44 year olds may have to wait to get keys to a home. Stock image
How long would you be willing to wait for the keys to your dream home…or any home for that matter?
According to a new data analysis by Director of Irish Sustainable Homes Rob Cass and Rigr AI CEO Edward Dixon, prospective home buyers in Waterford could face a 99+ year wait in getting a foothold on the Irish property ladder.
‘One Million Homes’ is a platform that uses publicly available data like ownership rates, housing completions and population to estimate how long 18-44 year olds may wait to get keys to a new-build home.
The waiting time is calculated by dividing the number of 18-44 year olds in a given area who don’t own homes by the number of homes built in the specific area each year. Second-hand properties are not taken into account for the data model.
One Million Homes points to a lengthy wait across Waterford’s different local electoral areas to get keys to a home:
- Tramore-Waterford City West: 23.7 years
- Waterford City East: 33.1 years
- Portlaw-Kilmacthomas: 37.5 years
- Waterford City South: 92.6 years
- Dungarvan: 99 years
- Lismore: 137.2 years
See below for an interactive map
Across Ireland, Waterford ranks middle of the pile for waiting time, with the Déise recording an estimated total waiting time of 82.7 years.
Waterford was ranked as the second-best county in Ireland for first-time buyers, with 15 first-time buyer purchases recorded in November 2025.
The electoral area of Waterford City South that encompasses Kilbarry, Ballybeg and Kilcohan was highlighted as one of the worst-performing areas in Ireland for new build commencements, with an approximate 47% drop across five years.
The website gets its name from the roughly one million homes that will be needed to cope with demand each decade.
In 2025, there were 36,284 new dwellings completed in 2025- a 20.4% increase from the previous year.
The government have targeted the construction of 300,000 homes from 2025-2030, a rate of 50,000 completions a year.
Speaking to the last year, Waterford Minister of State John Cummins said housing completions will eventually rise over the 50,000 per year threshold.
“As we ramp up the delivery in the coming years, 2030 will be more than ‘29, ’29 more than ‘28, it is to get to that 300,000 homes over the course of the plan. And we've done it before,” said the Waterford Fine Gael TD.
“Let's be clear, we've gone from building less than 5000 homes in 2013, to over 30,000 homes last year. Now we need to get that to over 50,000 and obviously continue the trajectory going forward.”
