Daft Property - Irish Property News

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...

Russians ride in to rescue Irish apartments in Bulgaria... UP TO 50 Irish-owned apartments in Bulgaria have been bought by Russian property prospectors in the first six months of this year, a Dublin-based property business has said. An estimated 30,000 Irish citizens currently sit on more than €1bn of bad property investments in Bulgaria. Dylan Cullen, head of Appreciating Assets, said growing demand from the former Soviet country for the Bulgarian resorts means Irish people are finally able to offload their unwanted properties. Since the peak of the Bulgarian property-buying frenzy, from 2005 to 2008, Black Sea prices have fallen by between 35pc and 45pc, depending on location. But the Russians and Ukrainians, the two biggest buyer groups, have formed a view that this market looks to be near the bottom. Buyers are back looking at the Black Sea for holiday homes. "The Russians are becoming wealthier and as their middle class expands they want holiday homes," said Mr Cullen. ...

Euro dream threatens to become nightmare... ANALYSIS: LAST WEEKEND the world’s attention was on Washington DC as America’s politicians peered into the abyss of sovereign default. On Sunday they stepped back. This weekend attention is on Rome and Madrid. Politicians in those two capitals are sliding towards the same abyss. But there is a big difference between the US and the Mediterranean countries. In America, that country’s leaders walked voluntarily to the edge of the chasm for political reasons. They were not beaten to that point by the bond market. Political leaders in Italy and Spain are in an altogether more difficult position. They are being propelled towards the precipice because confidence in their economies is draining away. They are clutching desperately for something to halt the slide. But it appears ever less likely that they can save themselves. With each passing week it seems increasingly clear that Europe is coming to a fork in the road: one route leads to deepe...

Barack Obama and the Queen to visit Ireland during its time of despair... The financial rescue package for Ireland has been a national shame – so why are there no barricades on the streets of Dublin? Strange times in Ireland; a British queen and an American president staging back-to-back visits this week and next. But what is everybody talking about? It's the economy, stupid. Yes, the economy is really the only topic on the front pages, on the TV, on the lips of the subdued window-shoppers up and down Dublin's Grafton Street in turbulent May sunshine and showers. The Queen, who is said to love facts and figures, may or may not learn on her visit that Ireland has 14% unemployment, that its economy will grow by only 0.6% this year, that house prices have fallen 12% this year and 40% since the 2007 peak, with the decline accelerating. She may or may not discover that Ireland has suffered the biggest decline in educational standards of any developed nation in the last deca...

10.8pc plunge in Irish house prices... House prices in Ireland are falling at a double-digit rate but property values in other countries are showing signs of stabilising, research indicated today. The average cost of a home in Ireland dropped by 10.8pc during 2010 as the market suffered from the fall-out of the country's economic problems, according to estate agent Knight Frank. The drop was the biggest recorded for the total of nearly 50 countries looked at by the group. The pace of the falls are also showing little sign of easing, with property losing 3.5pc of its value during the final quarter alone. Steep price falls were also seen in Dubai, with property values diving by 6.1pc during the third quarter of 2010, the latest quarter for which figures are available. But there was better news for those who have bought second homes in France, with house prices in the country actually rising by 9.5pc during 2010. The more conservative French mortgage market means that hous...

Thousands of Irish people who bought homes abroad, for their holidays or as a pension, are selling up – if they can UP TO HALF or more of the Irish people who bought properties abroad during the Celtic Tiger years may now be trying to sell them, according to estimates by estate agents. Their success or failure – and whether they sell at a loss – depends on where they bought and when. “Of the 250 Irish people who bought properties through us between 2003 and 2008 along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, between 50 per cent and 60 per cent are now selling them or have sold them,” according to Kirkor Ajderhanyan, director of Agence 107 Promenade, an agency which specialises in selling properties with sea views on Nice’s seafront. “There were so many of them that we used to call it the Promenade des Irlandais at the time. But most will make an average gain of 25 to 30 per cent,” he claims. On the other hand, Irish agent Hilary Larkin, who sells properties in nearby Cannes, says tha...

Ireland's Problems Have Euro Zone Worried... The PIIGS are not out of the woods yet. Ireland's ongoing economic woes have financial markets concerned that the country might need an EU bailout. A new round of austerity measures could trigger a downward spiral. Sean FitzPatrick, 62, couldn't help smirking when he appeared before the judges of the High Court in Dublin last Wednesday. FitzPatrick, who is Ireland's most famous banker, had already declared personal bankruptcy last summer, after accumulating €145 million ($195 million) in debt. His monthly income is currently €188, FitzPatrick's legal counsel informed the court. But he will only be a poor man if his wife Catriona leaves him. The six houses and the rights to a retirement fund which is worth millions belong in part to her, and cannot simply be seized by creditors. FitzPatrick owes the largest sum to the Anglo Irish Bank, where he served as chairman until late 2008. "The bank granted him and his relative...

Debt crisis to worsen as markets target Ireland... Ireland has lost control of its financial fate and its future is now in the hands of the markets, one of Europe's leading sovereign bond commentators has said. Luca Cazzulani, deputy head of fixed income at Italian-German bank UniCredit, said the Irish and Portuguese governments could do little to influence their fate because the markets had signaled them out from the so-called PIIGS - Portugal Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain - for extreme scrutiny. He forecast that key sovereign interest rates in Ireland and Portugal, which rose last week to more than 5.5%, were "unlikely" to fall back below 5% because markets were not anticipating good news from Europe. "If anything, we are likely to get further bad news," Cazzulani warned. Irish and Portuguese sovereign interest rates could stay "very high" for five or six months. "If so, then we are going to face a series of stresses because these levels are ...

Is it time to start thinking the unthinkable? If our membership of the eurozone was the cause of our woes, perhaps leaving the club would help fix things... AS the Greek financial crisis continues to worsen and shows signs of spreading to other eurozone countries, is it time to start thinking the unthinkable? With Portugal and Spain now in the firing line, we in Ireland need to start asking the hard questions about both our exchange rate policy and our debt mountain. On Tuesday, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was quoted as saying that leaving the euro would be a "disaster" for Ireland. "Were a country to contemplate leaving the euro there would a flight of capital and a collapse of the banking system", according to Mr Lenihan. While we have no reason to doubt the minister's sincerity, the fact that he is even discussing the issue, even if only to rubbish the possibility of Ireland exiting the single currency, demonstrates that the worsening of the Greek crisis h...

Why do we always get things wrong? I know, it's the Brits, the Brits, the Brits... As this State flounders towards collapse again, let's ask: why do we always get things wrong? Sure, I know three reliable answers: the Brits, the Brits and the Brits again. Indeed, entire university faculties are given over to discourses on Hibernian victimhood, with self-pity intellectualised through the impenetrable verbal mud of Foucault, Derrida and Fanon. This whingeing school of thought has an academic brand name, Field Day, and a caste of articulate laureates who specialise in the plaints of our woebegone Irish identity . Yet no one considers the possibility that there might be something genetically askew with too many Irish people for us to create an ordered, predictable society that does not fall apart every 15 years or so. So, has our still-small population been cursed with some genetic fault from our founding population which came from Spain 4,000 years ago? A baleful genetic legacy ne...

Price of homes 'to fall 23pc in two years'... HOUSE prices here will fall by 13pc this year and a further 10pc in 2010, international credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's has predicted. After suffering the sharpest price fall in Europe in the four years to 2010, Standard & Poor's (S&P) expects Irish prices to stabilise in 2011. However, some Irish estate agents believe that much of these price fall predictions are already priced into current Irish house prices following a spate of house-price cuts by builders since the start of the year. S&P is using the Permanent TSB (PTSB) house price index as its guide and this has been criticised by many estate agents, including Michael Grehan of Sherry FitzGerald and Keith Lowe of Douglas Newman Good, for being too late with its price trend calculations. These agents reckon that Irish prices have fallen by between 35pc and 40pc from their 2007 peak but the PTSB index, because of the way it is calculated, has so f...

Developers cut prices of new homes in Dublin... Developers have sharply reduced prices at some of Dublin’s bigger housing schemes this weekend, in a bid to stimulate sales of vacant units and entice first-time buyers into the market. Price reductions of up to €150,000 are being offered at the latest releases of apartments and houses for sale. P Elliott & Co has put a total of 80 units at four of its apartment schemes, on to the market through Hooke & MacDonald, at substantially reduced prices. Prices now start at €169,000 for a one-bedroom apartment at Arena in west Dublin, while a two-bedroom apartments at Mellowes Quay in Dublin 8 now costs €269,000, down from a high of €415,000 in spring 2007. Jackson Homes, Kingscroft Developments and Durkan New Homes have also reduced prices at their schemes by about €100,000, or up to 30 per cent on peak levels. Estate agents reported strong enquiries ahead of this weekend’s releases. ‘‘Based on the level of enquiries we’ve had, we expect...

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....

House building crash helped spark sudden rise in jobless figures... HOUSE building crashed after the Christmas holidays last year, new CSO figures show -- helping to explain the sudden rise in unemployment during 2008. Output in house construction was at the lowest level since the current statistics began in 2000. It was also 20pc less than the previous low point eight years before. House building slumped more than l30pc on the previous quarter, as builders left sites closed after the New Year break. This left the volume of output down 38pc on the same period of 2007. The value of houses built was down 35pc, suggesting little change in prices over the 12 months. Non-residential building was up almost 9pc compared with 2007, and the value of the buildings was 14pc greater. This gain left total construction down almost 22pc on the previous year. But Rossa White, economist at Davy Research, said the figures seemed to be saying that non-house building was already slowing fast in 2007. ...