Late to the game, Am I on track for retirement ?

There are risks in buying but there are also risks in renting for the next 20 years.

I think purchasing a property will de-risk the OP from ending up at 67 with insufficient money to purchase a home in the UK. His wealth increase/decrease will track the property market in Ireland and at 67 will hopefully allow him to have more options and wriggle room.

Maxing out his pension contributions allows him to have a good income on retirement, but saving 5K per annum to fund his house purchase in 20 years relies on his buying power to match property prices and this is too risky in my opinion.

First question you have to ask, when are you planning on retiring. lets assume 65 for now

Second question, how much is property where you want to live?

You have approx 18 years to go to your retirement, assuming your investment keeps pace with inflation and you continue to invest 500 a month then at a rough calculation you will have somewhere in the region of €175k-€200k to spend on a house when you hit 65. remember, it's unlikely you will get a mortgage at retirement, at best, it will be very difficult

I know it is only a rough estimate, but will that buy you what you need given the value of your investment will (hopefully) rise above this but so will property prices?

Is buying in the UK now an option and rent it out?

Welshman said:

N/A - I have always rented a room during my time working in Dublin. Currently paying 800 euro a month.

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If you don't mind sharing with strangers I think you are almost certainly better off buying yourself and renting a room.

Suppose you can get a mortgage of €250k which is at the limit of what the Central Bank lending limits allow. This will (just about) buy you a two-bed apartment in Dublin. Your mortgage will be €1500 or so over 17 years at 2.5%. You can rent a room with no tax liability for up to €14k a year. In practice budget for €500 a month from a lodger.

So you'll be paying €1,000 for a roof over your head (plus overheads) which is more than you do now but it's affordable on your income.
At the end you will own an apartment outright and you can use the equity to buy in the UK.