Daft Property - Irish Property News

25 of the 28 units in a new development at Fostertown Place in Swords were purchased by Ryanair for their cabin crew. TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR says he does not have any issue with Ryanair or other companies buying up almost entire housing estates for their staff. He said there is a big difference between companies like Ryanair bulk-buying houses and apartments compared to investment funds. “We are building over 30,000 new homes now every year,” he said. “If you think about it, that’s 70,000, 80,000 or 90,000 bedrooms every year so we are finally seeing housing being built on scale,” Varadkar said. “We want to scale that up this year and next year as well because we do have a rising population and family sizes are getting smaller, so we need more housing and we are making progress,” he said. “In relation to Ryanair specifically, I don’t think it is the worst thing that a company would buy accommodation for their staff. It’s not the first time this has happened, it has be...

The properties are now being advertised for rent at €3,175 per month. AN INVESTMENT FUND has purchased 85% of the homes in a new housing estate in north Dublin. Forty-six of the 54 units in Belcamp Manor in Balgriffin, Dublin 17 were sold last month for over €21.5 million. A filing on the Property Price Register shows that the properties were purchased for €21,585,904 in December 2023. Sources in the industry have confirmed the houses were bought by an investment fund, but the name of the firm has not been revealed. The Land Registry has not yet been updated to reflect the new owners. The houses, which were launched by estate agents Knight Frank in December 2022, are fully furnished and located on the Malahide Road. Occu, a private rental sector company owned by Sw3 Capital, is now advertising the four-bedroom properties for rent at €3,175 per month. In a statement, Occu – which has properties for rent at 15 other locations in Dublin – made clear it does not own the property, de...

The new rules mean more bike storage options must be made available in developments. NEW HOUSING DESIGN guidelines issued to local authorities sets out that some housing developments should have fewer car parking spaces, smaller gardens, and increased bike storage facilities. Housing developments in city centres will see an increase in density under the new rules, which sets out that minimum distances between homes should also be reduced with the option for planning authorities to disregard them entirely if they were satisfied residents would not be unduly affected. Alongside changes to housing density, there are proposals to reduce the number of car parking spaces in urban areas where public transport facilities are accessible. The guide sets out that in city centre locations and urban neighbourhoods car-parking provision should be “minimised, substantially reduced or wholly eliminated”. It also sets out that it is now to be a specific planning policy requirement that a...

Kerry will see the sharpest spike in prices – as much as 15% – while prices in Kilkenny and Laois could see an increase of 10%. HOUSE PRICES OUTSIDE Dublin are to increase by an average of 4.9% in the next 12 months. Kerry will see the sharpest spike in prices – as much as 15% – while prices in Kilkenny and Laois could see an increase of 10%. That is according to The Sunday Times Nationwide Property Price Guide. Monaghan, Louth and Westmeath are the only counties where prices are expected to remain the same. In some counties, such as Wexford, Waterford, Mayo and Offaly, it is now generally cheaper to buy than it is to build a home. Ballinlough and Model Farm Road in Cork (both €490,000), are among the most expensive areas for three-bed semi-detached houses. Greystones, Co Wicklow, is also on the pricey side (€605,000), as a popular commuter town. The three most affordable areas for the same house are Mohill (€155,000) and Ballinamore (€160,000) in Co Leitrim, along...

Although the Government certainly isn’t lying when it says that the 32,695 new homes completed in 2023 represents the largest annual delivery in 15 years, it shouldn’t try to insult people’s intelligence “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” As lines go, it’s one that’s been attributed over time to American writer Mark Twain and British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli among others. Given its essential truth, it’s unsurprising that the saying continues to be employed to this day whenever someone is suspected of playing fast and loose with the facts to suit their own agenda. Although the Government certainly isn’t lying when it says that the 32,695 new homes completed in 2023 represents the largest annual delivery in 15 years, it shouldn’t try to insult people’s intelligence. Rather, its representatives should have the decency to put the statistics into an appropriate context by acknowledging that the level of homebuilding dropped off a cliff after 200...

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...

The Irish economy is set to repeat its old mistake of excess mortgage-lending... The run-up to Christmas is always a good time for burying bad news and this year was no different. On the Friday before Christmas, Bank of Ireland announced it was going to have to put more money aside to absorb possible losses on Irish residential mortgages. Just how much more money was not very clear but it would appear to run into several hundred million euro. The statement was extremely technical and did not actually talk about losses or defaults. But the point is clear. The bank had already put aside some money to absorb losses that might occur as a result of people not being able to pay their mortgages. It now seems that more people than expected are going to default and the bank has had to put some extra money aside. It is as timely a reminder as you could hope for that the Irish banks are still broken and still fighting their way through a mountain of problem mortgages as a result of their rec...

The year saw a shift from D4 to D6 while the country market slowed on the previous year... DUBLIN... Dublin 6 dominated top-end sales this year and, in particular, Dartry. Whereas in other years coastal south Co Dublin and Shrewsbury and Ailesbury Roads have dominated, Dublin 6 and the area around Temple Road have become hot property. Top of the list was the purchase in May of Alston at 19 Temple Road for a whopping €10.225 million when former Paddy Power boss Patrick Kennedy traded up from his home on nearby Palmerston Road. In a quiet off-market deal, the Victorian property, on one acre, was sold by barrister Vincent Foley and his wife, Helen, who have lived there since the late 1980s. Around the corner at 5 Temple Gardens, €6.5 million exchanged hands when the detached redbrick house on a third of an acre owned by the late barrister and former attorney general, Rory Brady, sold in another off-market deal. Not long after Subiaco at 1 Temple Gardens sold for €5.85 million shortly a...

Looser Central Bank rules, generous Help to Buy grants for first-time buyers - but trader uppers are being left out in the cold... They paid too much for their home during the boom; their wages are stagnant; their mortgage is still underwater; they may have a cheap tracker but have ended up renting their own home and leasing another family friendly property at a hefty rent themselves. They’re the negative equity generation and now they want to trade up – but any help form the Government is going towards first-time buyers and not them. Why? It’s a question many people of a certain age may be asking themselves following last month’s revisions to the Central Bank’s mortgage rules. For first-time buyers, the requirement to have a deposit of just 10 per cent – or as low as 5 per cent on a new build thanks to the help-to-buy scheme – means getting the funds together to buy a first property, particularly in Dublin, has become a good deal easier. But what about second-time buyers looking to...

It is hard to know whether the threat by landlords to withdraw from State rental schemes and pass on a raft of charges to tenants is posturing, or a reality the Government will have to face. Housing Minister Simon Coveney's rent control measures outlined this week, which are expected to become law before Christmas, have certainly raised the hackles of the Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA), which has 5,000 members across the State. It said some members have threatened to withdraw from State-sponsored rental schemes, despite in many cases signing legally binding leases with local authorities. It has also proposed charging a payment to collect keys, imposing service charges and registration fees, obliging tenants to pay for parking and documents, and even asking tenants to contribute towards the Local Property Tax - which the Revenue Commissioners have said must be paid by owners, and not those renting. The IPOA's claims that its members are "hard-pressed" and ...

Rising house prices lift 45,000 out of negative equity... Rising property prices, particularly in Dublin, are lifting thousands of households out of negative equity, according to new research. A study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) calculated that recovery in house prices last year alone reduced the number of mortgage loans in negative equity by 15 per cent. Based on mortgage data obtained from the Department of the Environment and theIrish Banking Federation, the institute estimated that the total number of mortgage loans in negative equity peaked at 314,000 in late 2012. Coalition can meet deficit target with adjustment of only €200m, says Ibec Property price growth last year – which saw values rise by nearly 16 per cent in Dublin and 6 per cent nationally – reduced this number by approximately 45,000. At this rate, the ESRI is predicting the number of households in negative equity will have fallen by 43 per cent by the end of the year from its...

‘Hope to be bankrupt for Christmas’: Irish mortgage debtors see insolvency as way out... With one in five mortgage payments being overdue in Ireland and families across the country having their homes repossessed, some of the debtors are hoping for bankruptcy to do away with their endless fear of losing their properties. Julia Godsill, a Dubliner, can hardly hold back her tears, when retelling her not uncommon mortgage saga to RT’s Tesa Arcilla. When she bought her house the Irish economy was still the “Celtic Tiger” enjoying its boom time. After the credit crunch of 2008, Julia could only watch as her mortgage became too high for her to be able to pay, while the value of her house itself went down. “I ended up with a cash offer for 500,000. This was in 2011. And I was delighted. But the banks refused to accept the offer because the mortgage was 800,000 climbing with arrears. They preferred to bring me to court, and repossess the house instead.” The Central Bank of Ireland figu...

A Souvineer  of the Irish Property Bubble... Not all of Ireland’s ghost estates are half built and ugly - some have a certain charm...like this scheme in rural Waterford. No attention to detail was spared by developer Pat McCoy whan he built the estate  in the village of Stradbally, Co Waterford.  Tucked away at the top of a hill leading up from the village green are 15 chocolate-box thatched cottages.  Enjoy  this video of Ireland's prettiest Ghost Estate ! See the "Pretty Ghost Estate" story  ! (Thanks to David for sharing this video)

A NEW law allowing banks to repossess homes and investment properties comes into operation today. Thousands of homeowners and investors are expected to be threatened with having their properties seized. Justice Minister Alan Shatter signed a statutory instrument which puts the provisions of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2013 into operation. Banks had been unable to threaten repossessions following a ruling in the High Court in 2011. The new legislation overcomes the so-called Dunne judgment that put a block on repossessions. Now many of the more than 54,000 residential homeowners who are more than a year in arrears face the real threat of repossession. Banks are likely to try to take ownership of around 30,000 buy-to-lets that are in arrears. Almost half of these mortgages are having only the interest payments made on them. Davy Stockbrokers has estimated that up to 43,700 letters threatening repossession have been issued by banks, despite their bein...

A surge in the number of home repossessions is on the cards after the Central Bank decided to change the rules. Debt-ravaged homeowners will no longer have one year's protection from having their houses repossessed. The 12-month ban on banks taking back properties from homeowners in arrears is being cut to two months. The move and other changes to regulatory rules for how struggling borrowers should be treated by lenders have been condemned by David Hall, of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, as a "banker's charter" that will lead to a spike in repossession. He claimed: "The banking dogs are set to be unleashed on mortgage holders in arrears." The move to change the Central Bank's code of conduct on mortgage arrears – a rule book for how banks are to treat borrowers behind on their payments – is to be radically changed. The revised code is set to come into operation from next Thursday with a number of changes that banks have lobbied ...

Property prices fall again but pace eases... PROPERTY prices fell again last month, new figures out today show. Prices were down 0.5pc in March but this was a slower fall than in the previous month, according to the Central Statistics Office. In the year to March the fall was 3pc nationally. Dublin prices were 1.4pc higher than a year ago, despite a 0.8pc fall in March. Prices have now halved countrywide since the peak of the housing boom in 2007. Dublin prices are down 56pc, with those in the rest of the country down by 49pc. Although the pace of price falls have eased, the latest figures mean recovery in prices is still some way off. Report by  CHARLIE WESTON - Irish independent

Property crash wipes €257bn off value of homes in six years... IRELAND'S homeowners have collectively lost an estimated €257bn in property value in the six years since the market began to crumble, the Irish Independent can reveal. The 50pc collapse in value since the peak of 2007 also means that by the Central Bank's own estimates, Ireland's crash has now become the worst experienced by any country in the world. The combined loss to the owners of Irish residential properties since the bubble burst equates to almost four times Ireland's total bailout sum of €67.5bn and more than half the total amount of money first set aside in the European Union's €500bn Financial Stability Facility. The PTSB/ESRI Index, Ireland's former national price barometer, showed average house prices standing at €310,632 at the start of 2007. An estimated drop of 50pc in value puts the average loss to an Irish household at €155,316. With 1.6 million households across the co...

We're being seduced by property porn again – will we ever learn? LAST week the "glossy brigade" was out in force. Papers were full of bright, impossibly blue skies, over "imposing" homes many of which "boasted" this feature or that attribute. Yes, the glossy brigade, Ireland's property pornographers, who pedal lifestyle fetishes to the middle classes are back at a newspaper close to you. Amazingly, just six years after a property crash, which destroyed much of the economy, chatter about house prices appears to be back, or at least, out of social quarantine. Any day soon, expect a new TV programme on house hunting, the joys of home makeovers or the allure of trading up. Why do we allow ourselves to be taken in by this nonsense? Every spring since the crash, the estate agents and the property industry have tried to re-launch the property market with puff pieces, hard selling and gimmicks. Yet underneath the hype, the evidence from the hous...

Thousands of 'ghost estate' residents will now fall into tax net... THOUSANDS of homeowners living in unfinished developments will be hit with property tax bills from the summer. People living in estates which were classed as "seriously problematic" just four months ago will be forced to pay the tax after the Department of the Environment decided they did not qualify for a waiver. Last year, some 1,322 housing estates containing 43,000 homes were considered exempt from the household charge because essential works needed to be carried out. The Government has now decided that just 421 estates, with about 5,100 households, will not have to pay the property tax. Housing Minister Jan O'Sullivan defended the move, saying that essential works, including public lighting, water treatment systems, roads and open spaces, had been provided in many estates since last summer. The reduction in those qualifying for a waiver showed that progress was being made in ta...

Homeowners' guide to calculating and paying the new tax... From next week 1.9 million homeowners will start getting letters from the Revenue outlining how they are to pay a new local property tax which is to replace the household charge that was introduced two budgets ago. Property tax? But I paid a fortune in stamp duty when I bought my house at the height of the boom. Surely I can’t owe more money on a property that is now worth half of what I paid for it? Yes you can. The Government, has decided to ignore the massive amounts of money it collected from us in property-related stamp duty over the last decade or so and start on a blank page when it comes to property tax. The good news (for the Government) is that it should raise €500 million a year from the new tax. How much will this one cost me?  Well it depends on where you live, but the good news is that the majority of people will be expected to pay less than €500 a year thanks to the all but total collapse of th...