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...

Property auction disaster shows prices still falling... IRELAND'S first discounted property auction proved a disaster yesterday, with just two of the 63 properties on offer being sold. Only two separate plots of land sold for a total of €95,000 at the auction in a Cork hotel, despite the fact that over €10m worth of houses and properties were on offer. Those same properties were worth almost €30m just five years ago. But yesterday potential bidders felt the prices were still too high. Analysts grimly warned last night that it was proof the Irish market had still to reach rock bottom -- with potential buyers convinced that prices will fall back further. Yesterday's auction was the first to involve discounted Irish properties. These are cut-price holdings being sold by private owners or developers eager to dispose of assets. Ireland's first distressed-property auction took place in Dublin last April when €14.8m worth of deals were struck. Distressed property invol...

Talking Property... Give them what they want - a bargain... THE TIME has come to swallow your pride and scream from the rooftops. "WE NEED TO SELL - AND URGENTLY" Just as last season's designer garments fail to excite the fashionistas, your home, regardless of how highly it may once have been rated, will not now excite the chattering classes. Why? Because property is no longer considered a fashionable topic of conversation. In fact, it's a topic to be avoided at all costs these days. It is, as they say, a sore subject. However, on the bright side, the property website Daft has noticed a 35 per cent increase in browsers to their internet site this September compared with September 2007. Now, perhaps they are all nervous homeowners, checking daily to see by how much their property has dropped in value. Or perhaps there are a lot of window-shoppers out in cyberspace at the moment. But along with the above mentioned, I suspect that there may also be a number of potential ...

Uncertainty over jobs after record market fall... AS grave uncertainty hangs over the future of thousands of jobs at Irish branches of recession-slammed US firms, markets are not expected to rebound quickly from yesterday’s record-breaking fall. At home, the ISEQ index of Irish shares’ closing figure was its lowest for more than five years. Across Europe, the trend was similarly dismal for a second day, with the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index falling 2.6% to its worst close since May 2005. The stock market shock waves followed the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old fourth largest financial institution in the US. In response, central banks around the globe pumped funds into the money markets, including €70bn from the European Central Bank, $50bn (€70.5bn) from the US Federal Reserve and £20bn (€25.2bn) from the Bank of England. Lehman’s bankruptcy filing, the biggest in US history, followed Merrill Lynch & Co’s decision at the weekend to sell itself to Bank of A...

With the market at its lowest point for many years, it's difficult to establish the right price for a property. Orna Mulcahy asked agents to nominate homes that represent good value. Simon Carswell suggests who might buy them, and how the purchase could be financed... FALLING PROPERTY prices may make it appear that there are bargains to be found out there but the tightening on mortgages means that borrowers will be fighting for higher loans. The credit crunch has forced lenders to seek larger cash deposits and higher borrowing costs from their new mortgage customers. The maximum mortgage to first-time buyers has been capped at 92 per cent by most lenders and standard variable rates have risen by an average of half a percentage point over the last year as the banks' own funding costs have risen. However, prices on many houses have reduced substantially to sell and banks are still open to lend mortgages to customers with large lump sums and a strong ability to repay. AIB, the lar...

Dubliners are bracing themselves for further flooding as heavy downpours are predicted in the coming days. The news comes as residents in many parts of the capital are today coming to terms with the damage wreaked by Saturday's intense rainfall. Met Eireann says heavy and thundery rain is likely in Leinster tonight, with flooding a real possibility in many areas. And the outlook for the coming days does not look much better, with heavy rain predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday. Meanwhile, a senior Dublin City Council official has admitted the capital's drainage system cannot cope with the "freak" rainfall which occurred over the weekend. Rainfall City engineer Tom Leahy said the system was designed to deal with normal or even heavy rainfall. "It cannot deal with these extreme events," Mr Leahy said today. A top climate expert warned that Dubliners will have to get used to the heavy rainfall and flash floods that hit the city on Saturday. Dr John Sweeney of NU...

Towns feel pain as jobs vanish... Ireland's towns, once noisy with the sounds of construction, are ominously quiet, as people get to grips with a new reality and the prospect of emigration, writes Ronan McGreevy . A WEEK AFTER Leitrim were knocked out of the Connacht championship by Galway, the county captain, Gary McCloskey, emigrated to London. McCloskey, who was Leitrim player of the year in 2007, had been out of work for five weeks, having been made redundant by Shine Construction, based in Athlone. Shine, which had been involved in several projects in the midlands including the development of Athlone town's new stadium, blamed the downturn in the building sector for its closure in May. The firm had debts of €3.5 million and assets of just €990,000. Twenty others lost their jobs. "I had no work for five weeks," says McCloskey, a Trinity College graduate in civil engineering. "It came to a crunch and that's it - hop on a plane to London. It was easy, given...

Sign of times as Lidl eyes Habitat store... Upmarket furniture store Habitat could be replaced in the city centre by a discount supermarket. German retail giant Lidl is one of only two businesses -- the other an overseas bank -- pitching for the lease of the massive store, located off the bottom of Grafton Street on College Green. Crunch Lidl and fellow discount chain Aldi have seen a significant increase in business since the effects of the credit crunch. They have also been helped by a recent National Consumer Agency survey. The research found that a basket of 28 own-brand goods was more than 50pc cheaper in Lidl than in Tesco or Dunnes Stores. Several leases available on Grafton Street have been slow to sell because of the deterioration in consumer spending. Property adviser CB Richard Ellis has predicted that business premises on the high street will only sell when values have been cut by 50pc. Lidl is not the only big-name trader to have checked out the former Habitat store. Nearb...