Daft Property - Irish Property News

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

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...

Fall in house prices second-highest in EU... Irish house prices fell at the second-fastest rate in the European Union last year and at a rate that was almost five times faster than the EU average, according to data compiled by academics based at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth (NUIM). The figures published by the university’s All-Island Research Observatory show that Irish property prices are now nearly 30 per cent below a standardised average dating back to the middle of 2010. They indicate that the Republic has had the worst-performing property market in the EU over the last six years , although markets in Spain and Bulgaria have performed almost as badly in recent years. The data does contain some glimmers of hope that a recovery may be in sight or at least that the worst of the price falls are over. The figures, compiled from Eurostat price surveys, show the Republic reporting the third-highest quarterly property increases in the third quarter of last ye...

Another year over, what do we know? Five years on from the crash, what have we learned? There is no magic solution but we are still thinking like an island. In the end, not even sex could sell Belmayne. Nearly six years ago the north Dublin estate seared itself in the nation’s memory, with images of couples cavorting on kitchen counters, all in the desperate hope of arousing interest in an increasingly flaccid property market. At the now infamous launch party, the developer of Belmayne, Donal Caulfield, wearing a diamante-studded Roberto Cavalli beanie, promised buyers “gorgeous living” in four-bedroom houses with curved walls, all for €600,000.  (Below: one of the famous “gorgeous living” ads) The “gorgeous living” hoardings are long gone, as are the prices. No-nonsense signs on the Malahide Road now advertise houses in Belmayne starting from €245,000. Belmayne is just one attraction in north Dublin’s property market Ground Zero. In 10 minutes you can drive from t...

Revenue table of local property tax bands at a tax rate of 18% for 2013 and 2014: Revenue is to send homeowners an estimated value of their home and property tax due, in letters to be issued in the coming weeks. The local property tax payable on the market value of a property is to come into force from July and will be administered by Revenue. Revenue will write to residential property owners in March including notification of an estimated amount of local property tax, a booklet on the operation of the tax, valuation procedures and payment methods and a form for completion. The completed forms with a self-assessment of property value will have to be sent back to Revenue by May 7th on paper or May 28th electronically. The return will be valid until 2016 unless circumstances change. If Revenue believes the amount of property value declared does not reflect the market value, it may question the declaration. If people refuse to pay or do not send back the form the tax...

Homeowners warned against 'fixing' values... HOUSEHOLDERS are already planning to deliberately undervalue their houses to cut down on their property tax bills, a government TD has claimed. There are fines of up to €3,000 in property tax legislation for those who knowingly make a false declaration. But FG Dublin North TD Alan Farrell said he had learnt that some householders in his constituency were discussing a 'price-fixing' system – so that all the people in their street or estate would provide the same deliberately low value to the Revenue. "I think there would be nothing worse in the present economic environment if we had a two-tier system where some people were fiddling the system, while others are doing the right thing," he said. The property tax will be charged at 0.18pc of the current market value of a house, with householders paying six months of the tax this year from July 1. Mr Farrell, who worked as an auctioneer before he was elected ...

House prices go into reverse as property register takes guesswork out of buying... HOUSE prices fell last month in a move that reverses rises in the previous three months. The fall of 0.6pc in October means that prices have now risen in five of the 10 months of this year so far.  The value of the average property in the State is now half of what it was during the peak in the market in 2007. Dublin prices were down 0.2pc in October, and are 7pc lower in the year so far. Residential property prices in the capital are 56pc lower than they were when the market was at its highest, according to the CSO index. Prices outside of Dublin were down 0.9pc last month, and are now down 47pc from the peak. Some property experts said the introduction of the new property price register in September prompted falls in prices, as people can now seen exactly what prices houses and apartments are selling for, rather than relying on estate agents. The average value of a property nationally...

HOUSE prices will keep falling for another two years and not bottom out until at least 2013, when the average price will have fallen by 60pc to €150,000. The latest prediction comes as National Irish Bank said it would raise its variable rates by up to 0.95pc next month. However, there are renewed hopes that the European Central Bank will signal a cut in eurozone interest rates when it meets tomorrow. A cut in ECB rates may help the collapsing housing market. Ireland is currently experiencing the most violent property crash in the western world. Over the last four years, prices have fallen by 45pc to leave the average asking price at €194,000, according to the latest Daft.ie house-price index. The Central Statistics Office puts the fall from peak at 43pc. Now it has been predicted that prices are set to fall for another two years with the average asking price to hit €150,000 before the market bottoms out, according to research by housing economist Ronan Lyons of Daft. Mr ...