Skip to main content

Ireland Property Crash...Building Sector To Lose 40,000 Jobs - 2009

Building sector to lose 40,000 jobs next year...

Many leaving to seek work in the Middle East.

THE Irish economy is dead on its feet and as many as 40,000 construction workers could lose their jobs next year as housing starts have slumped to pre-1993 levels, according to latest figures obtained by the Sunday Independent.

So bad are things here that a number of leading Irish building companies are leading an exodus of our most skilled and talented workers to foreign lands in the search for work.

It has emerged that Irish firms are now lining up work in places like Dubai and Iran, both of which are experiencing building booms.

In what is further bad news for the Irish economy, the number of housing completions this year will be just 45,000 compared to the 93,000 at its peak two years ago, and next year it is reckoned that the number of completions will be less than 20,000.

This year, not one county in Ireland has managed to match or better the number of housing starts last year.

In a shocking realisation of how bad things are, in September of this year, 12 counties started less than 10 houses while four counties Wicklow, Longford, Roscommon and Cavan started no houses what so ever.

Fifteen counties have seen reductions in output of 70 per cent or more and Dublin was the best performing county, yet it has seen its output fall by almost 50 per cent.

In total, only 1,112 developments were begun throughout Ireland in the month of September, and so far this year only 16,738 houses have begun construction, compared with 45,718 in the same period in 2007.

Hundreds of small developers have gone under as a result of the market collapse. One such builder is Denis Finn, from Howth, whose story has been told in the Sunday Independent and in the Washington Post.

His company went bankrupt and he dismissed his 34 employees. Mr Finn made no money when he sold an old lodge, and recently lost more than $1m when the bank repossessed his two unfinished houses and sold them for less than half the price he had envisioned.

"I have never seen property values in my life go down, and they just took a nosedive," said Mr Finn, a father of four. "I had a good little company; now everything is gone," Mr Finn said. "It's just painful."

The Construction Industry Federation said further casualties are likely, and Ireland will build less than 20,000 houses next year. CIF director general Tom Parlon said: "While we will look to do something like 45,000 houses this year, we'll be nowhere near that next year."

Mr Parlon said that if only 20,000 houses get built next year, which is an optimistic projection, 40,000 construction jobs will be lost.

At present, the collapse in house starts is as a result of an oversupply of stock, but the CIF has warned that the shutdown in activity has been too "sharp" and could lead to another shortfall in the next 12 to 18 months.

But it has emerged that a number of leading Irish developers have just returned from Dubai where they have begun tendering for major civil and private building projects. Given the property boom, many Irish firms are seen as having the expertise necessary to carry out such major projects.

Several firms have also moved into Iran which is also embarking on multi-billion dollar large-scale projects.

Report by Sunday Independent Newspaper.




Dubai is the place for property investing right now - find out more.

Popular posts from this blog

Ireland's Celtic Tiger Excesses...

'Bang twins' may never get to run a business again... POST-boom Ireland is awash with cautionary tales of Celtic Tiger excesses, as a rattle around the carcasses of fallen property developers and entrepreneurs will show. Few can compete with the so-called Bang twins for youth, glamour and tasteful extravagance. Simon and Christian Stokes, the 35-year-old identical twins behind Bang Cafe and exclusive private members club, Residence, saw their entire business go bust with debts of €9m, €3m of which is owed to the tax man. The debt may be in the ha'penny place compared with the eye-watering billions owed by some of their former customers. But their fall has been arguably steeper and more damning than some of the country's richest tycoons. Last week, further humiliation was heaped on them with revelations that even as their businesses were going under, the twins spent €146,000 of company money in 18 months on designer shopping sprees, five star holidays and sumptu

Property Tycoon's Dolce Vita Ends...

Tycoon's dolce vita ends as art seized... THE Dublin city sheriff has seized an art collection and other valuables from the Ailesbury Road home of fallen property developer Bernard McNamara. The collection will be sold to help pay his debts. The sheriff, Brendan Walsh, is believed to have moved against the property developer within the past fortnight, calling to his salubrious Dublin 4 home acting on a court order to seize anything of value from his home to reimburse his creditors. The sheriff is believed to have taken paintings from the family home along with a small number of other items. The development marks a new low for Mr McNamara, once one of Ireland's richest men but who now owes €1.5bn . The property developer and former county councillor from Clare turned the building firm founded by his father Michael into one of the biggest in Ireland. He is the highest-profile former tycoon to date to be targeted by bailiffs, signalling just how far some of Ireland's billionai

I fear a very different kind of property crash

While 80% of people over 40 own their own home just a third of adults under 40 do. This is disastrous for social solidarity and cohesion Changing this system of policymaking requires a government to act in a way that may be uncomfortable for some. Governments have a horizon of no more than five years, and the housing issue requires long-term planning. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was intended to tackle some of these problems. According to its website its remit is to “drive the delivery of better public services, living standards and infrastructure for the people of Ireland by enhancing governance, building capacity and delivering effectively”. So how is the challenge of delivering homes for people in 2024 and beyond going to be met? The extent of the problem is visible in the move by companies, including Ryanair, to buy properties to house staff. Ryanair has, justifiably, defended its right to do so. IPAV has long articulated its views on how to improve supply an