Daft Property - Irish Property News

Surge in emigration as economic downturn takes toll... THE NUMBER of people moving to live in Australia, Canada, the US, New Zealand and Britain over the past year has increased sharply, reflecting a major surge in emigration due to the recession. New figures show Irish citizens have received 21 per cent more long-term resident visas for Australia, 49 per cent more New Zealand resident visas and 33 per cent more US immigrant visas. There has also been a 100 per cent increase in the number of Canadian work permits issued to Irish people and a significant increase in the number of similar visas issued for Australia. The number of people moving to Britain has risen by 2 per cent in 2010, which amounts to just under 1,000 Irish people moving to Britain every month to live. The figures from five of the most popular destinations for Irish emigrants are in line with recent data from Central Statistics Office, showing 65,300 people emigrated in the year to April 2010, the highest number leavin

Fiscal ruin of the Western world beckons... For a glimpse of what awaits Britain, Europe, and America as budget deficits spiral to war-time levels, look at what is happening to the Irish welfare state... Events have already forced Premier Brian Cowen to carry out the harshest assault yet seen on the public services of a modern Western state. He has passed two emergency budgets to stop the deficit soaring to 15pc of GDP. They have not been enough. The expert An Bord Snip report said last week that Dublin must cut deeper, or risk a disastrous debt compound trap. A further 17,000 state jobs must go (equal to 1.25m in the US), though unemployment is already 12pc and heading for 16pc next year. Education must be cut 8pc. Scores of rural schools must close, and 6,900 teachers must go. "The attacks outlined in this report would represent an education disaster and light a short fuse on a social timebomb", said the Teachers Union of Ireland. Nobody is spared. Social welfare payments m

IRELAND had the fourth biggest fall in house prices in the world this year ... Only Estonia, the US and Latvia have been harder hit by the drop in property values, a study by research group Global Property Guide shows. House prices in Ireland fell by 9.6pc in the year to June, according to the index. But when the level of inflation is taken into account, the drop was 13.9pc . The compilers of the index point out that "in Ireland, the 2009 Budget will include a 'stimulus package' helping first-time homebuyers". Latvia recorded the biggest fall in prices, after inflation was taken into account, with a 33pc drop. In the US, the inflation-adjusted fall for the year to June was 19pc. A host of European countries have recorded much smaller falls in house prices than Ireland. In Britain, the inflation-adjusted drop was nearly 10pc and Portugal recorded a fall of 8pc. Spain, which is now experiencing a sharp construction slowdown, recorded an inflation-adjusted decline of 2.