Ireland’s commuter belts have become more elastic and are no longer confined to the regions around its main cities. With working from home now far more common in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, more people are living in what were previously considered remote parts of the country, says Des O’Malley, head of Sherry FitzGerald Countrywide. “If they only have to be in the office one or two days a week, then some are prepared for a really gruelling journey time.”
Affordability is another key driver pushing the commuter belt further afield. According to the Myhome.ie property report for the final quarter of 2024, which features median asking prices for a three-bedroom semi across all counties, the best value three-bed semi-Ds were in Longford, with median prices for this traditional staple of the market coming in at €140,000, an increase of 1.8 per cent on 2023. In neighbouring Roscommon, the median price was €162,500, an increase of 6.6 per cent, while in Mayo the price was €175,000 with asking price growth at 3.6 per cent.
Prices in the border counties were only marginally more expensive. Co Donegal had a €185,000 median asking price, up 7.6 per cent, while in Leitrim, long regarded as Ireland’s least expensive county in which to buy a home, the median price climbed by 13.8 per cent in 2024 to €190,000.
The median asking price in Cavan was €192,500, a 10 per cent annual increase driven by growing demand for commuter towns such as Virginia. Tipperary proved a notable exception with its median asking price remaining static at €195,000.
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But while buyers may be purchasing more keenly priced homes, they have to “square that against the amount of time spent in traffic,” O’Malley says.
Many of the locations suggested here are towns in their own right with their own hinterlands where people live and work but are also being considered as viable options for commuting.
Commuter paradox
Affordability drives much of the decision-making for both buyers and renters. After that, the second-biggest household expense is transport, says Dr Suzanne Mead, a lecturer in sustainable transport and mobility at TU Dublin. “When making the decision to buy a home, people never factor in the health and wellbeing disadvantages of the longer-distance commute. Sometimes it is out of necessity but the trade-off is less time to spend with friends, family, to go for a walk, less active travel. The cognitive load and physical mental stress of driving means less time for physical activity.”
Meade points out that a “shocking” number of children are stuck in the back of the car doing long commutes. “It’s a growing trend and we’re normalising it.”
And if you don’t have grandparents to help, childcare is a huge cost, a second mortgage, says Meade. “If you have to pay for childcare and run two cars you fall into the transport poverty bracket.”
Rail links
A rail link is a key factor in driving demand, O’Malley says. “Anywhere on a rail network, towns such as Portarlington or Tullamore will see their housing stock [being priced] at between 20 and 30 per cent above a comparable-sized town without a rail link.”
Castlebar is another worthwhile place to look for a home on the rail network, says O’Malley. Ballina is another more affordable option, he notes, although travelling by rail to the town requires a change of trains at Manulla Junction.
Nenagh, Co Tipperary, is another town he rates. “It’s more affordable with a beautiful hinterland,” he says.
And he believes Portmarnock in north county Dublin was undervalued for years. With a 25-minute rail commute to Connolly Station from the seaside town, that is no longer the case, as is evidenced by the number of new homes built within its catchment over the last decade.
Other locations, meanwhile, have caught the attention of two of television’s best-known property experts.
Civil engineer and managing director of KMC Homes Kieran McCarthy, who formerly co-presented RTÉ’s Cheap Irish Homes with Maggie O’Donnell, says he’s a fan of Ireland’s market towns for the range of accommodation on offer. “When they’re not close to a big city they have to stand on their own merit, maintain a vibrant local industry and sustain their young people,” he explains.
“Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, is a beautiful, bustling town, heritage-filled, with a rail link to Dublin and a wide range of housing stock, many within the typical Cheap Irish Homes prices.
“Skibbereen is a good hour from Cork but feels like it has the beginnings of a cosmopolitan centre. It is at the crossroads of all west Cork’s amenities, from the beaches at Roscabery in summer to hillwalking in winter.
“Tullamore and Athlone are both great and are on the train.”
Buyers’ agent and presenter of Virgin Media’s Help Me Buy a Home, Liz O’Kane, says she loves all of east Cork but especially Ladysbridge, a village south of Castlemartyr “because it is a village with a vibrant community, within commuting distance of Midleton and Cork city, and only about 5½ kilometres from the beach at Garryvoe.”
The Co Louth native says Clogherhead has it all. “It is an active fishing village where everyone is about a five-minute walk from the beach. There’s yoga on the beach in summer, an all-year round coffee shop, kayaking, a sail club and golf. The area has a magnificent coastline and offers more bang for your buck.” It’s a 12-kilometre drive to Drogheda where there is a direct service to Dublin.
Moycullen in Galway’s Gaeltacht region interests O’Kane, as under the Planning and Development Act 2000, 20 per cent of the homes in new developments must be sold to Irish language speakers. “The idea is to preserve the Irish language,” explains Eileen Keaveney, administrative officer at Galway County Council planning department.
Where two people are purchasing together one of them has to speak the language, be interested in it and use it every day. To qualify for ownership, prospective buyers must pass a proficiency test conducted by the council. After that, the owners of the property must continue to be active users of the Irish language for a period of 15 years. While the property may change hands during this time, it can only be sold to fluent and frequent Irish speakers.
For non-Irish speakers looking to locate in Galway, Des O’Malley of Sherry Fitzgerald Countrywide sees the towns of Loughrea and Athenry as underrated. And he notes the latter has a rail link to Dublin making it a viable option for someone commuting to the capital for work one or two days a week.
Northern exposure
The commuter belt now extends over the Border to Newry and Fermanagh, where house prices are lower and there is a wider range of housing stock options, says O’Malley. “You live in Newry, for example, but are tax-resident in the south,” he explains, adding that in the areas without rail links a lot of carpooling goes on.
Road links
Commuters have to be confident that the road network can take you to where you need to be for the time that you need to be there, O’Malley says. “Many of the routes can’t do that,” he says explaining that Dublin commuters can arrange to be in situ for a 7.30am meeting or a 10.30am one but that the time in between is elastic with heavy traffic playing havoc with timekeeping.
While the N11 into Dublin remains a challenge, the traffic in Galway can be just as bad or even worse, O’Malley notes, citing anecdotes from car commuters he knows that live in Oranmore and work in Limerick, a distance of 86km, taking 45 to 50 minutes to get there via the M18, whereas those travelling from Oranmore into Galway city, 9.9km, can expect their journey to take an hour and 15 minutes.
Tuam, Headford, Loughrea and Ballinasloe are all part of Galway’s commuter belt, with the latter located on the rail network. To the west of the city, Moycullen, the gateway to Connemara, is the big commuter town. The recent opening of the bypass there should see prices rise in line with demand.
The road network in and around Limerick is “pretty good” O’Malley says, with commuters travelling to it from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, Mallow, Co Cork; north Kerry, Ennis, Co Clare and Galway.
Cork city too has a reasonably good road network, O’Malley says, with commuters travelling in from Midleton, Mallow, Millstreet, and Macroom. Cork people working in Dublin typically take the train to and from the capital two to three days a week.
In Co Donegal, Letterkenny is its big town but feels so remote, says O’Malley. “Property values haven’t kept pace with the rest of the country. You will get way better value homes but if your job requires you to be in Dublin two days a week it is of no value to you.”
Education
Proximity to schools at both primary and second level is essential for families. And for those with children looking to go on to study at third level, progression rates from those schools may be a consideration. Below is a selection from the latest Irish Times Feeder Schools report (December 2024) of schools in popular commuter towns with a progression rate to third level of 90 per cent or more.
You can find the full list of fee paying schools here.
Broadband
The quality of broadband is a critical issue, says Brian Dempsey of DNG. “If working remotely full-time you will need proper broadband.”
Prospective buyers can input the eircode of the property they’re interested in into the National Broadband plan (nbi.ie) website to check on the availability of high-speed fibre broadband under this scheme. Where a property isn’t covered, then Switcher.ie can provide the details of other internet service providers within a particular area.
Wants and needs
Many house-hunters have a long list of things that they want from their home, some of which may not be immediately attainable, Dempsey says.
“If they become more broad-minded and reduce some of the items on that wish list, it opens up more possibilities,” he says.
Below shows the most popular commuter towns as per Myhome.ie searches in the first two months of 2025.
