Daft Property - Irish Property News

It's time to quiz planners for their part in the crash , says ISABEL MORTON AS THE next few rounds of the blame game get going, including the banking enquiry, one wonders when our 88 different planning authorities and more importantly, our planning appeals board (An Bord Pleanála), will get much more than a sharp slap on the wrist for their part in the property fiasco which resulted in some 300,000 homes lying empty. No doubt individual planning authorities, much like the banks and the developers, were only interested in what was going on in their own back yard, but one would have to wonder how and why An Bord Pleanála upheld permission for so much of what was built during the Tiger days. An Bord Pleanála’s mission statement is “to play our part as an independent body in ensuring that physical development and major infrastructure projects in Ireland respect the principles of sustainable development and are planned in an efficient, fair and open manner”. Surely, as an independent bo...

Over 600 ghost estates stand as haunting legacy of crash... THE startling scale of Ireland's property crash is laid bare today as academics reveal that more than 600 'ghost' estates are scattered around the country. For the first time, a comprehensive map charts the locations of the empty and abandoned developments that stand as haunting monuments to the Celtic Tiger splurge . The analysis suggests pockets of the north-west and midlands will be worst hit by a housing glut that will take years to sell off. Largely rural counties Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon and Sligo have the highest number of partially built and semi-vacant housing estates when measured against their populations. Their relative distance from major cities is expected to compound their oversupply problem for the foreseeable future. Although Cork has 96 so-called 'ghost' estates and Dublin 58 -- the highest figures by county -- it is believed that their urban populations can absorb the surplus much soo...

State to rent Nama properties for social housing... The government plans to rent thousands of vacant houses and apartments from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and use them for social housing. Representatives of the new ‘bad bank’ have held meetings with officials in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to explore the possibility of renting out properties that would otherwise lie empty. Housing minister Michael Finneran said his officials were seeking to ensure a ‘‘social dividend’’ from Nama by renting residential units on long-term leases for social housing purposes. Finneran said an arrangement could help to deliver ‘‘a return in line with Nama’s mandate’’. The government is under pressure to demonstrate to the European Commission that Nama will be capable of generating significant ongoing cash flows over its lifetime, and that the new agency will not be excessively generous to participating banks. While a move to rent properties for social ho...

THE head of Ireland's auctioneers and the former Finance Minister Ray MacSharry have clashed over the future of the so-called 'ghost estates' left over from the property boom. President of the IAVI (Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute) Aine Myler has suggested that some new estates may have to be demolished altogether as part of an ongoing effort to restore stability to the property market. Speaking to the Sunday Independent at the IAVI's annual conference in Dublin on Friday, Ms Myler said that as a result of poor planning and a lack of infrastructure, some of the country's newer housing stock may never be required. Asked what could be done with these developments, Ms Myler said: "It's really difficult to know. It shows up a number of issues that emerged during the boom, where there was poor planning, the building of large estates where there was no infrastructure, no transport links and other links which have probably diminished in the meantime as a r...

Most do not believe worst is over for economy... A majority of voters do not believe Brian Lenihan’s claim that the worst is over for the economy but they strongly back his decision to remain in office as he battles with cancer, according to the latest Irish Times /Ipsos, MRBI poll. Asked if they accept the Minister for Finance’s view that the worst is over or if they believe that the worst is yet to come, 61 per cent of voters said the worst is yet to come while 31 per cent believe it is over and 8 per cent have no opinion. In party terms, only Fianna Fáil voters believe the worst is over with the supporters of all other parties saying it is yet to come. Younger voters are more inclined to the view that the worst is over while the over-65s are the most pessimistic. Asked if Mr Lenihan is right to remain in office as he battles with cancer, 70 per cent of voters say he is, while 23 per cent say he is not and just 7 per cent have no opinion. The strongest support for Mr Lenihan remainin...

House prices are now at 2003 levels as almost €100,000 has been wiped off the value of an average home. The price of property has plummeted by a massive 31.5pc since the peak in early 2007. Data published by the Permanent TSB/ESRI house price index outlined that the pace of property price declines escalated in 2009, with prices tumbling 18.5pc over the year compared to a fall of 9.1pc in 2008. The standard house price in the country is now €213,000 and the figures deteriorated as the year progressed, with an 8.5pc fall in average prices in the last three months of the past year. Niall O'Grady, general manager of business strategy at Permanent TSB, described 2009 as a "horrendous year" for the Irish housing market. "The pessimist will say there's worse to come. The optimist will argue that affordability has improved so much that things will stabilise soon. But the realist will admit we'll have to wait and see," he said. Separate research from Goodbody ha...

Shocking new probe shows 302,000 homes are left empty... More than 300,000 houses are lying empty around the country -- three times the official estimate, says a team of academics. The scale of vacant housing -- equivalent to half of all homes in Dublin -- could be enough to meet demand for years to come. The figure was worked out by the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis (Nirsa), based at NUI Maynooth, which advises the Government. It is up to three times the estimate from Housing Minister Michael Finneran, who last week told the Cabinet there were between 100,000 and 140,000 houses lying empty. The construction industry suggested it was 40,000. NIRSA director Prof Rob Kitchin said he decided to calculate accurately the extent of empty housing because official figures do not exist -- only estimates. Along with colleagues, he used the GeoDirectory (Ireland's national address database), the 2006 Census and Department of Environment figures based on ESB connection p...

Home repossessions will soar as 6,400 are in arrears... AN avalanche of repossessions is now expected after new figures show close to 6,400 people stopped paying their mortgages more than a year ago. The number who have failed to pay their mortgages for a period of 12 months or more is three times the level it was at a year ago. These homeowners are now almost certain to have their homes repossessed. Pressure And struggling homeowners face renewed pressure from next month, which will be the first time Bank of Ireland and AIB will be able to begin new legal proceedings against homeowners who have failed to pay their mortgage for a year. A moratorium agreed with the Government forced the banks to wait a year before starting legal action to repossess homes from those who failed to pay their mortgages. Many of the 6,400 people at dire risk of losing their homes should not have been given their mortgages as they had no hope of repaying them, mortgage experts said. These bad lending decision...

The fall in house prices left many homeowners in negative equity, but this need not necessarily prevent you from trading up... IT'S the topic no one wants to talk about, but this elephant has no plans to leave the room. Negative equity happens when the value of your property on the open market amounts to less than the sum of your mortgage. If you bought a house within the past five years, you are likely to be in negative equity to some degree. The average household is sitting on negative equity estimated at €43,000, according to Irish Independent calculations based on a recent report by Goodbody Stockbrokers. It was estimated that 116,000 households were in negative equity at the end of 2009, rising to nearly 200,000 by the end of this year, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute. However, this is a conservative estimate based on prices falling by 24pc from their peak in 2007. If house prices end up falling by 50pc, this figure would rise to 350,000. It is general...

Economic downturn wipes 50pc off value of homes... LARGE detached family homes in the capital have halved in value in the downturn. Estate agents admit four- and five-bedroom detached properties in Dublin are now only fetching 50pc of their 2007 prices. This means upwardly-mobile couples who shelled out an average of €1m at the height of the boom years are now sitting in a house worth just €500,000. The Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI), which represents auctioneers around the country, says that houses nationally are now worth 40pc less than at the peak. Connacht has seen the smallest drop in house prices but even these are dramatic. The average two-bedroom townhouse in the region has fallen in value by 27.7pc. Things are much worse in Dublin for struggling homeowners who are seeing themselves plunged further into negative equity as prices have plummeted by half. But this is all good news for buyers with cash today. The IAVI annual property survey released shows that new t...

The average Dublin house price is now €242,000 according to the latest Daft report... ASKING prices for residential property around the country fell by 19 per cent during 2009 and are now nationally 30 per cent below asking levels in early 2007, according to Daft’s latest house price report published today. The national average asking price for residential property at the end of 2009 was €242,000 – a fall of €107,000 from the peak in early 2007. In Dublin, asking prices have dropped by up to 42 per cent since the peak says the report. Earlier this week the country ’s largest estate agency chain, Sherry FitzGerald, said that house prices had dropped 20.3 per cent nationally in 2009, and in Dublin, had fallen in real terms by 45.7 per cent since 2006. Commenting on the link between price falls and movement on the market, Daft economist Ronan Lyons says that while Dublin saw the largest fall in house prices in 2009 “the total stock for sale in the capital fell by almost 20 per cent over...

Time to raze the unfinished relics of the building boom... Ireland is about to witness a US-style degeneration of half- built housing schemes into ghost estates, says Juno McEnroe. FORMER US President Thomas Jefferson once said that small landholders are the most precious part of a state. In Ireland this phrase rang true during the boom with the first-time buyers and start-up investors who were encouraged to throw their cash into property. At one stage the property and construction sector made up over 20% of Government income. A precious pot for the State indeed. But just as Jefferson’s ideology of giving tracts of land to ordinary US citizens ended up benefiting greedy speculators, Ireland’s property investment schemes during the boom saw towns ravaged by sprawl, over-development and a plethora of ‘phantom’ or ‘ghost estates’ that now look unlikely ever to be finished . So it now looks as though the landholders will be the most worthless, or even the costliest, part of our esteemed st...

1,500 homeowners a month seek state aid on mortgages MORE than 1,500 applications for mortgage interest supplements are being lodged by struggling home owners every month, it has emerged. As a result, community welfare officers administering the scheme for borrowers are being overstretched as demand for the state-paid mortgage assistance rises. The number in receipt of Mortgage Interest Supplement has shot up by 260% since the height of the boom. At the end of November 2009, 17,500 Mortgage Interest Supplement claims had been lodged for the whole year. Up to 12,800 claims were granted during the same period. Recipient numbers have escalated since the boom, rising 260% since the end of 2007 when the total number of recipients was 4,111. A private report for a section of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, which oversees the scheme, reveals the concern by community welfare officers over the mortgage arrears crisis. The report, obtained by the Irish Examiner, puts the debt crisis...