It can be done but it is difficult.
First of all, you can't just lob €100k into your pension. From the way you are talking, I am presuming you are in non pensionable employment. You will have to open a personal pension plan. At 40 years of age, the maximum you can put in is 25% of earnings i.e. €12,500 a year. it will take 4 years to get the money in.
The banks do lend for pension property purchases but you really have to jump through hoops to get it. As a PAYE worker with a relatively small pension pot (when the money is transferred across), you will find it very difficult to get one.
Spouses can be included but they have to have a separate plan. The property would be put into a unit trust and your wife would have a PRSA AVC buying into it. It would be quite complicated.
Risk wise - you are taking massive risk. You are gearing up to invest in one asset class situated in a basket case of a country which has just come out of a property slump and looks as if it is headed for another.
Why not invest in dividend paying stocks and bonds? No gearing so you don't owe anyone, no tenants, lower ongoing costs, extremely liquid so you can move in and out at will and you still get a regular income from it?
Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie