Daft Property - Irish Property News

FIRST, some good news. The fall in house prices might be accelerating, but vacancy rates in Dublin are falling. Estate agents Savills have published figures claiming that the number of unoccupied houses in the capital had fallen from 11,000 in March 2010 to just 5,400. According to Savills, people who are unable to sell their houses are successfully renting them instead. The Savills' figures support the findings of last April's census which showed that the proportion of vacant houses in Dublin and the surrounding counties, at 10pc or less, is much lower than elsewhere in the country -- for example over 30pc in Co Leitrim. Despite this chink of positive news, it's back to business as usual for our stricken property market. The latest house-price figures from the CSO weren't bad, they were catastrophic. After a few months during which it seemed as if the worst might be over, house prices plunged by 1.6pc in August and by 13.9pc over the past 12 month. The situ

Coalition alarm at Nama property scheme... THERE IS concern within the Government that plans by the National Asset Management Agency to encourage the purchase of thousands of residential properties could artificially inflate the property market. The agency wants to introduce a scheme where it would waive 20 per cent of the purchase price of a home on its books if values were to fall further over the next five years. Nama has suggested the scheme could eventually apply to 5,000 houses and apartments. However, internal briefing material reveals fears within the Department of the Environment that the move would artificially inflate the market before it has hit bottom. It could also prevent homebuyers from realising their homeownership aspirations by preventing prices falling further. Nama is hoping to launch its "deferred purchase" scheme on a trial basis later this year by arranging the sale of about 750 homes. The agency does not need Government approval for the

House prices take another dive bringing annual collapse to 14pc... House prices took another nosedive towards the end of the summer, official figures have revealed. The cost of residential property fell 1.6pc in August taking the total collapse over the previous 12 months to 13.9pc. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said homes have fallen in value by 43pc since the peak of the market in early 2007. Over the last four years house prices in Dublin are down 48pc and apartments 57pc, while the fall in residential property prices outside the capital is about 40pc since the bubble burst. According to Conall Mac Coille, chief economist at Davy Stockbrokers, the prices are based on very low level transactions because mortgage lending remains weak. “So falling prices reflect distressed vendors being forced to sell despite weak market conditions,” he said. “Hence residential property prices are likely to continue falling through 2011.” Report by Ed Carty - Irish Independent

Lot Type Location Reserve Price will not exceed this figure 1 Investment Flat Dublin 1 Sold €160,000 2 Leasehold Flat Dublin 4 Sold €130,000 3 Vacant Flat Blackrock €185,000 4 Vacant Flat Howth Sold €183,000 5 Vacant Flat Galway City Sold €144,000 6 Leasehold Flat Dublin 1 Sold €167,500 7 Leasehold Flat Dublin 8 Sold €92,000 8 Vacant Freehold House Clara Sold €72,000 9 Vacant Leasehold House Renvyle Sold €110,000 10 Vacant Flat Blackrock Sold After 11 Investment Freehold House Loughrea Sold €127,000 12 Vacant Freehold House Lackaghmore Sold €164,000 13 Vacant Freehold Building Fermoy Withdrawn 14 Vacant Freehold House Ballyjamesduff Sold €79,000 15 Leasehold Flat Dublin 1 Withdrawn 16 Investment Flat Dublin 8 Sold €116,000 17 Vacant Freehold Building Gorey Sold €120,000 18 Investment Freehold Building Rathgar Sold €320,000 19 Investment Freehold Building Rathgar Sold €459,000 20 Investment Flat Salthill Sold €158,000 21 Investment Freehold Building Dublin 12 Sol

Apartments and swish redbricks on offer in third mass auction. The latest sale of distressed property by Allsop Space takes place in Dublin tomorrow and interest is high... THE RESERVE prices are tantalisingly low but the line-up of property in the third Allsop/Space distressed auction tomorrow at Dublin’s Shelbourne hotel isn’t quite as stellar as for their previous sales. This time there are fewer headline-grabbing period houses on sought-after Dublin roads and more apartments and commercial buildings – at the last Allsop/Space auction in July two of the biggest sellers were a large period house on Ailesbury Road in Dublin 4 and a redbrick on Iona Road in Glasnevin, Dublin 9 . “Every auction is different but we do try to balance the types of property,” says Robert Hoban, associate director of Space, who says there are “some nice redbricks in Dublin 6” in the auction. Of the 74 lots, more than half are in Dublin, with reserves low enough to entice investors out of the woodwo

Record 70,000 now behind on mortgage payments... MORE borrowers will be pushed into arrears on their mortgage payments because of rising unemployment, a ratings agency predicted yesterday as new figures show the number in trouble surged to 68,248 in July. That figure represents an increase of 12,485 in the numbers who are behind by three months or more on their mortgage payments when compared with last April. Overall, almost 9pc of homeowners are now in arrears. Ratings agency Moody's said it expected more borrowers to be pushed into arrears as jobless numbers increase. Moody's figures tend to be more up to date that those of the Central Bank which last month said arrears had risen to 7.2pc in June, leaving 55,763 homeowners three months or more in arrears. The Moody's figures imply that 22,231 have not paid their mortgage for a year or more, calculations based on their statistics show. These homeowners are at serious risk of losing their homes, home-loan experts

Ireland 'needs 30,000 new homes per year'... Ireland will need to build over 30,000 new homes per year over the next 15 years, an economist has claimed. Marian Finnegan of property auctioneer Sherry Fitzgerald told the National Housing Conference today that Ireland’s growing population would require substantial additional housing between now and 2026. “The latest census figures show that Ireland’s population has risen to 4.58 million and it is expected to increase to 5.1 million people by 2026,” Ms Finnegan said. “Based on this population growth we can anticipate that there will be a need for an average of 30,200 new homes to be built per year over the next 15 years.” The conference, organised by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), is taking place in Dublin Castle’s Conference Centre. The comments come despite figures which show that there are more than 30,000 properties in th

Traveller in eviction row owns Limerick ghost estate... THIS is the 33-unit housing estate in Co Limerick owned by one of the Irish Travellers living on the controversial and illegal Dale Farm camp in England. The substantial detatched houses, which could sell for over €400,000 each, have been under construction since 2004. Irish Travellers living on England’s largest illegal halting site at Dale Farm in Essex face eviction next week. The Traveller, who can’t be identified because he shares the same name with five other Travellers on the Dale Farm site, became the title holder of the ‘ghost’ estate in Rathkeale, Co Limerick last year. It is one of the few estates in the country where construction has continued -- albeit at a slow pace -- since the collapse of the Celtic Tiger. A prior applicant successfully lodged planning permission with the local authority for the houses in Rathkeale, where there is a large Traveller population. Work is still continuing at the housing

Number of 'ghost estates' hits 2,881... THE NUMBER of “ghost estates” has increased, figures to be published next month will show. Colm Ó Ruanaidh, senior adviser on social housing at the Department of the Environment, told the housing policy conference that the count for this year was not yet complete, but semi or unoccupied housing developments showed there had been an increase from 2,846 last year to 2,881 this year. A departmental spokesman said Mr Ó Ruanaidh was working from “raw data” that would be finalised and published next month. “The additional 35 developments constitute an increase in the number of dwellings in ghost estates from 179,230 last year to 179,900,” Mr Ó Ruanaidh said. Some 230 unfinished developments have met the criteria to benefit from a €5 million fund to address immediate safety concerns. A guidebook for residents in unfinished estates is to be published in coming weeks. Marian Finnegan, chief economist with Sherry FitzGerald, said the c

NAMA under fire for failing to help house poor people. ENVIRONMENT Minister Phil Hogan is embroiled in a row with NAMA over whether the agency is doing enough to house poor people. The minister said he was unhappy with the toxic assets agency for not selling properties under its control at a discount to his department. These could then be used to house those on council housing waiting lists. But the department was unable yesterday to identify specific areas in need of social housing where NAMA had a stockpile of suitable properties. And NAMA has no specific legal obligation to help to resolve the social housing problem. The law setting up the agency says that one of its purposes is "to contribute to the social and economic development of the State". But there is no mention about handing over specific numbers of properties for social housing. So far just 58 apartments in the Beacon South Quarter, Sandyford, which had been in NAMA, have been purchased by a volun

PLANNING AND THE RING OF KERRY: YOU CAN almost hear Jackie Healy-Rae saying it – “the plannin’ is terrible round here”... What some Kerry people mean by this, of course, is not that the landscape has been chewed up by haphazard housing, but that it can be damned difficult to get permission to build in certain areas. The stark statistics do not bear this out. Altogether, there are at least 34,000 one-off houses in the countryside, accounting for more than half of Kerry’s housing stock or seven per kilometre of public road. That’s an awful lot of houses strewn around the landscape of a county that was recently voted the “most scenic” in Ireland. Kerry’s senior planner Paul Stack has been outspoken about the “incredible damage” done by the proliferation of housing. After an absence of 14 years, he “couldn’t believe what I came back to, planning went out of control”. “It’s like the Celtic Tiger – we knew we were wrong and we kept going,” he told councillors in July. “Eighty per cen

Mortgage misery index shows commuters' pain... DURING the Celtic Tiger era, the most high-profile example of how the country was finally wealthy was the booming numbers who constituted Ireland's 'rich list'. However, the new realities of post-boom Ireland are epitomised by a county-by-country breakdown of the numbers receiving Mortgage Interest Relief Supplement (MIRS), that has just been compiled by the Department of Social Protection. MIRS is a scheme whereby the Department of Social Protection pays the interest part of a mortgage when householders become unemployed and can no longer meet their payments. Such payments are supposed to be short term -- although in practice this is no longer the case -- and are meant only to cover the interest element of the mortgage. After a modest start to the scheme, the numbers availing of it -- and therefore its cost -- have almost quadrupled. Unsurprisingly, the department's figures indicate that the two counties wi

Beat the recession: get two houses for price of one... THERE was a time when you had to queue around the block to ensure you could buy a house in a new housing estate. But now you can 'Buy One and Get One Free'. An estate agent yesterday launched the novel offer on houses in Co Donegal -- with a price tag for both of €100,000. Two sets of properties went on the market in Letterkenny and Milford at that price with a third set of semi-detached homes being offered for €120,000. The house at No 28 Coopers Crest in Milford is a three-bedroom semi-detached home with a fitted kitchen, fireplace and a garden. And anyone prepared to fork out €100,000 for the home will get No 29 absolutely free. The same deal is on offer for four-bedroom semis No 41 and No 42 Gleann Rua in Letterkenny, with No 37 and No 38 slightly more expensive at €120,000. Unlike other bargain sales of properties around the country in recent times, this sale comes with a good news story. Estate agent

The Nama factor is about to be tested this Saturday with the launch of 13 apartments in Belarmine, Stepaside on Dublin’s southside. This will be the first of Castlethorn Construction’s housing developments to be sold by Nama and the first significant Nama disposal of new homes on Dublin’s southside. The new homes are in Belarmine Hall (below) and Belarmine Plaza. Sherry FitzGerald has been appointed the selling agent and is quoting minimum reserves from €119,950 for the four one-bed apartments, reserves from €159,950 for a pair of three-bed apartments and from €189,950 for six three-bed units. By “minimum reserve” they mean don’t bother trying to haggle the prices downwards at the launch. About 30 of the units were sold in early 2009 when prices for two beds were €200,000-€250,000. The apartments are fully finished with appliances and BER certs and come with a designated parking space per apartment. Ivan Gaine of Sherry FitzGerald says the launch will be a good test of the mark

ESRI has been getting its forecasts wrong for years... In Irish economic circles, you tend to take much more stick from having been right than having been wrong. Those economists who got it wrong in the boom and believed the hype about the soft landing, such as the ESRI, still manage to grab front-page headlines. In contrast, those who called it right are put under constant scrutiny and are still being dismissed by the establishment as cranks, celebrities or, at best, lucky opportunists. The "insiders" rally round each other even when they are wrong and the "outsiders" are denigrated. In the economics world, for what it's worth, the outsiders' crime -- the crime of being right -- is particularly dangerous precisely because it exposes the limitations of the insiders. This type of insider/outsider prototype is commonplace in Ireland. Yesterday, we saw more of this type of behaviour where the establishment insiders carry on with their forecasts despite th

The hangover of Ireland's property boom: Abandoned ghost estates and lifeless houses stripped of their worth... Anyone against debt forgiveness should read this dispatch from a ghost estate... and thank God it's them instead of you... Rhoda Brogan stands at the front door of her three-bed semi, quietly surveying the abandoned, lifeless houses that surround her. In the centre of the estate there is a green area, wildly overgrown with weeds and nettles and circled by a cracked road and street lights that don't work. It is eerily calm; there are no cars driving around, no children playing - the only sound is the wind. All of a sudden, Rhoda’s eyes narrow and focus on an abandoned home directly across the road and she considers something for a moment before noticing the open windows. ‘Oh my God! Someone has got into that house since I left this morning,’ she says, quickly crossing the street with her four-year-old daughter, Saoirse, in tow. Around the back of the em

Massive €1m slump in value of D6 houses should attract canny buyers There is strong anecdotal evidence that the decline is worse than official figures suggest... IN May 2008, blue-chip auctioneering firm Douglas Newman Good confidently sought offers in excess of €1.55m for a "well-proportioned, mid-terrace Victorian home" on Waverly Terrace at the end of Kenilworth Square North on Dublin's southside. Later this month two properties on the same leafy Rathgar street, both currently split into flats, will go under the hammer in a distressed properties sale. One of the houses will have a reserve which will not exceed €240,000, while a neighbouring house has had its maximum reserve set at €380,000. It's a price drop of €1m in a little more than three years on properties that boast a revenue stream which should, on the face of it, attract canny investors who have cash. Rathgar remains a sought-after locale for young professionals who want to rent not far from th

Nama might prove 'laboratory' for EU, leaked cable said... THE FIANNA Fáil-Green government considered the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) “might prove to be a laboratory” for other European Union states faced with banks on the brink of collapse, according to the latest batch of diplomatic communications published by Wikileaks. Ireland’s permanent Ambassador to the EU, Rory Montgomery, made the comment to the US ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, at a meeting in Brussels in September 2009. Mr Montgomery revealed the EU “was watching closely” the establishment of Nama. At the same meeting he said that year’s budget would focus on cuts in public sector pay. The cable reports Mr Montgomery’s view was that “Ireland [was] paying too many civil servants too much to provide public services that could be provided for much less.” Mr Rooney met EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy on the same trip. Mr McCreevy had advised the Fianna Fáil-Green coalition to act quickly in es

Noonan: no lottery style payout for mortgage debt crisis... FINANCE Minister Michael Noonan yesterday promised that the Government will act swiftly to deal with the mortgage-debt crisis -- but insisted the solution will not be a "big pool of money in substitute for the lottery". The comments came as Mr Noonan insisted it was "not realistic" to expect the Government to sanction universal "debt forgiveness" for borrowers who bought at the peak of the market or have run into trouble with their mortgages. At a meeting of the Finance Committee yesterday, Mr Noonan repeatedly stressed that he would not second-guess the work of an interdepartmental group due to report on solutions to the mortgage crisis at the end of September. But he categorically ruled out any role for universal debt forgiveness, insisting it was "not possible" and that "nobody should think there's going to be some big pool of money to be handed out as a substitute fo

Insurer refuses to pay for pyrite damage in buildings... HomeBond leaves owners facing bills of €70,000. Thousands face bills of up to €70,000 to repair pyrite damage to their homes after a leading building insurer refused to meet claims. HomeBond, the building insurance agent, has contacted the owners of affected properties to tell them they will not accept liability or pay out on claims. Some homeowners who had already been offered compensation have now been told that these offers no longer stand. Junior Minister and Meath East TD Shane McEntee, who has represented many of the affected families, described the move as "shameful". It follows a High Court case in which it was ruled that a quarry from which pyrite-infected material was sourced was culpable for the condition of the buildings it supplied. Last year it was estimated that around 20,000 claims had been made to HomeBond in relation to pyrite -- a mineral that expands in the presence of moisture and oxygen

Write-offs and negative-equity loans already on offer -- just don't tell everyone The debate about debt forgiveness has raged across the nation, polarising public opinion. Laura Noonan investigates what banks are really doing to help struggling homeowners. It might surprise people to know that some banks have been embarking on forms of mortgage write-offs for quite some time. And that's not all that's been going on -- some of the other new-fangled "solutions" expected to be recommended by the Government's latest mortgage expert group, like negative-equity mortgages, are already in action, too. The reason the public don't know about these developments is simple -- the banks don't want the masses to know. Because as soon as you admit things like this are happening, you run the risk that everyone will want a piece of the action. The action so far has largely been limited to borrowers who've actually left their home by way of "volu