Up to what age, can you take mortgage in Ireland and for how long maximum?

My situation:
I am 65 years old, I have a property in Poland worth circa 170,000 fully paid. 34,000 savings. I will start getting contributory OAP in January 2026 around 1,130 euro per month and plan to continue working till my 70. I like my job very much. If for whatever reason I stop working I can avail my Polish pension worth 1,000 euro per month (it will increase around 9% with each delayed year). Here in Ireland I am renting a room for 800 euro per month and can save 1,000 euro monthly.

My partner has a house in Ireland worth circa 340,000 fully paid but is risk adverse very much. 250,000 savings. Full contributory OAP plus small private pension.

I planned to retire to Poland, but lately I am thinking about staying in Ireland. Nice apartment has just come on the market for 360,000. The only possibility in that circumstances would be to buy it together: 1/3 me, 2/3 him. So later he can sell his house (he is really very risk adverse) and pay me back or other way around I can sell my property, which might increase in value. Now we live very close to each other, so living together long term might not work.

I was thinking about moving together to the apartment with a lift because maybe in 10 years time walking up and down the staircase might not be possible.

Would it be possible for me to get 86,000 mortgage for 5 (the best for 10 years)? And if yes, which bank would you recommend?

This is quite confusing.

You want to buy an apartment for €360k
You have €34k savings
He has €250k savings
So you are short : €76k

What has his or your risk aversion got to do with it?

You are currently renting.

The future is unclear:
You and your partner may or may not live together.
You may retire to Poland or you may stay here.

1) Your partner should not sell his house as you don't live together and it may or may not work out.

What is the Polish property market like? You say it's worth €170k now.

If you sell it and than decide in ten years that you want to retire to Poland, will there be plenty of property available there?

I think that your best bet by far is
1) Sell Poland
2) You now have €204k savings
3) You can buy the Irish apartment on your own for €350k with a loan from your partner of €150k.

You fully own the apartment in your own name. Instead of paying rent to a landlord, you repay the loan to your partner.

He continues to own his apartment. If you move in together and it works out, he can sell his apartment and buy half of yours and clear the loan.

If it does not work out, you both have your own apartments.

I think that it would be too messy you owning an apartment between you in which you are living but he is not.

If you split up, it would need to be unwound.

Whereas if you own it and you split up, nothing has to be unwound, but you have to repay the loan just as you have to do anyway.

Thank you very much. Very thoughtful answers. The problem is we are both fiercely independent. It would be hard for me to take a loan from him. I would prefer a loan from the bank. But you are right it would be too messy to co-own it.

And you are right. He shouldn't sell his house.

I got a 14 year mortgage aged 54 out to aged 68 from AIB. Seemed to be their limit 3 years ago.

Thank you. I understand that they might have this 68 years limit for people, who take mortgage in their 30, but the longer one lives the higher is their life expectancy, so they should increase the limit for older people.

But anyway, I can't afford to buy the whole apartment on my own. So I should forget about it.

GeJoan said:

Thank you. I understand that they might have this 68 years limit for people, who take mortgage in their 30, but the longer one lives the higher is their life expectancy, so they should increase the limit for older people.

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Well, all we know from flybytheseat is that AIB had an age limit of 68 for a borrower aged 54. That might well be a higher age limit than they would apply to a borrower aged, say, 40.

But this isn't really about life expectancy. The lender is actually unconcerned with the risk of you dying — they make you have insurance in plce that will pay off the mortgage should you die during the term. They risk they are concerned about is that you will retire (either by choice or by necessity) and your reduced income will be insufficient to service the mortgage.

TomEdison said:

The lender is actually unconcerned with the risk of you dying — they make you have insurance in plce that will pay off the mortgage should you die during the term.

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Exceptions to the legal requirement to have mortgage protection insurance

You do not have to take out mortgage protection insurance if:

• You are over 50 years old
• ...

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Ah. But, even if it's not legally required, as a matter of policy or practice do lenders require borrowers over the age of 50 to take out mortgage protection insurance?