Daft Property - Irish Property News

Nation might take 15 years to recover Economy has shrunk by 'catastrophic' 22pc on peak, figures reveal. Ireland's economy has "fallen off a cliff" and could take more than 15 years to recover as new figures reveal it has shrunk by 22 per cent from its peak. A loss of more than a fifth of the country's domestic trade, particularly in the retail sector, in such a short period of time has been branded a catastrophe by the opposition and by the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME). The domestic economy, the day-to-day business of trading, has been decimated and to a far greater extent than previously thought. According to official CSO quarterly National Accounts figures, since the peak of Ireland's economic wealth creation in the first quarter of 2007, Ireland's economy has reduced by a frightening 22 per cent. From that peak period in early 2007, GNP figures (the domestic economy) had plummeted by just under 25 per cent in mi

Up to 300,000 homeowners in negative equity Further 30,000 will struggle with mortgage payments after Budget tax increases kick in... THE spectacular fall in property prices is even worse than was stated by a government economic think tank last week -- up to 300,000 homeowners are now in negative equity. Expected interest rate hikes will mean another 30,000 people -- roughly the population of Dundalk -- will struggle to meet their mortgage payments by the end of the year. The recession, joblessness and rising interest rates already mean that 70,000 borrowers have missed payments or renegotiated their mortgages. Now financial institutions are expected to increase their standard variable rates. It is also widely expected that the European Central Bank will increase its interest rate before the end of the year. This would also hit those on tracker mortgages. Michael Dowling, of the Independent Mortgage Advisors Federation (IMAF), said: "With rising unemployment, higher

What's a house worth now: does anyone know? With no national house price register available to help homeowners, working out how much your property is really worth can be tricky – if not impossible LIKE MANY neighbourhoods around the country, Charlesland in Greystones, Co Wicklow could be renamed Walter Mittyland, such is the huge disparity in the asking prices of houses in the area. When Keith Slowey and his wife, Genevieve, put their three- bed end-of-terrace on 89 Charlesland Grove on the market in October at an initial asking price of €310,000 (now reduced to €295,000), a three-bed mid-terrace house nearby was asking €345,000 while another three-bed, also mid terrace, in the area was €485,000. There are lots of properties in Charlesland on the market and according to Keith Slowey, “the price range is crazy”. Two-bed houses predominate in the estate and some are asking more than nearby three-beds. The houses are being sold by investors bailing out of the market and owne

Bailout will total more than the EU ever gave us... Noonan says interest rate must be renegotiated by next government: THE €85bn IMF-EU bailout will come to more than the total amount of payments received since we joined Europe in 1973, the Sunday Independent can reveal. Fine Gael's Michael Noonan said yesterday that this stark fact showed why the interest rate levied on Ireland must be renegotiated and that any new government's hand will be strengthened by this revelation. In cash terms, Ireland has received €63.7bn from Europe in various agricultural, social and cohesion funding -- far less than the bailout forced on the Irish by Jean Claude Trichet's European Central Bank in late November. When those payments are adjusted for inflation, they total €99bn -- that is fractionally more than the total cost of the bailout when the penal interest rates are factored in. When Ireland's payments to Europe are subtracted, our net receipts from the EU budget amount t

Hard Times You know times are bad when you can overhear elderly ladies on the bus using phrases like “the current budget deficit,” as I did recently, on a pleasant autumn morning in Dublin. You know times are really bad when one of them just about knows the figure: “Oh, God, it’s 30 percent or something.” In fact, the Irish government’s deficit for 2010 hit 32 percent of GDP, more than 10 times the legal maximum for countries in the euro zone. It’s hard to find a parallel to such public excess anywhere in the Western world. The effects of our crisis are everywhere you look. The bus that morning was almost empty. Barely two years ago it would have been packed with Polish and Lithuanian hard hats, dressed in work boots and high-visibility jackets and heading for their construction jobs. Now many of the migrants have gone back home. Construction has halted, and much other work besides. Fine restaurants now offer three-course lunches for just €15. Newspaper lifestyle supplements are fu

Now that the old days are gone, if any house is to sell it has to shine. But sell it can, writes Rose Martin... IN this market, it’s possible to get a bigger house, in a better location for the same price as the house you have now. The only snag is you have to sell your own, and more than likely at what would be deemed a loss. But then, the asset value of properties given during the boom were notional, and so too is the price you probably carry round in your head as the value of your own house. In order to move and get where you want to be, then you must scrap preconceptions if you are to sell. And that’s not as daunting as it seems — the lower end of the market is doing well, so selling the semi to buy that larger or detached house is possible. You just need to accept the hit and relish the fact that you’re buying low — the swings and roundabout school of property economics. And when you’ve decided on moving, put the house on the market immediately — but only after you’ve ch

RATHMICHAEL: €2.15M: A LARGE period house set on four acres just off the N11 in Rathmichael, Co Dublin has had its price cut almost 50 per cent Cuilin, on Allies River Road came on the market exactly a year ago priced at €4.15 million. The price has now been dropped to €2.15 million in a bid to sell through joint agents Sherry FitzGerald and Lennox Estates. The 396sq m (4,265sq ft) five-bedroom house has additional space in a coach-house and stables which have been refurbished and now include a games room and office. The grounds have also been restored and landscaped by the current owners who have lived at Cuilin since the late 1990s. A walled garden of just under an acre has also been restored, with traditional divisions and walkways lined with box hedging. The house is elegant and bright with the four large rooms downstairs and a fine curved landing upstairs. The house is located at the end of Allies River Road, well screened from the N11 though you can hear traffic through the trees

House prices drop to 2002 levels after 14% fall last year... HOUSE PRICES have fallen back to 2002 levels, according to reports released yesterday. The average asking price for a home nationally fell by between 12 and 14 per cent in 2010, according to property reports from websites MyHome.ie, Daft.ie and auctioneers Sherry FitzGerald. All three reports found the rate of decline had slowed, but none predicted that the bottom of the market had yet been reached. However, real estate agents Savills said property in prime locations was unlikely to fall further. Leitrim was the only county in the Republic where property prices did not fall last year, rising by 1.4 per cent in the last three months of 2010. The average home has now dropped by between 35 and 48 per cent since the peak of the property boom, the reports found. MyHome.ie’s latest property barometer found the average home now costs €217,000, over 13 per cent less than this time last year. Sherry FitzGerald put the national price d