Daft Property - Irish Property News

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...

Do not lose hope, urges Dalai Lama... Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has urged Irish people not to be discouraged or lose hope as they struggle to cope with the financial crisis. In his first visit to Ireland in 20 years the exiled Nobel peace laureate spoke to a sold-out conference of 2,000 people on the first leg of a two-day trip. With the country reeling from its worst recession and facing the costliest banking crisis in history, the 76-year-old said money would not make people happy. "The ultimate source of happiness, peace of mind, cannot be produced by money," he said. "Billionaires, they are, I notice, very unhappy people. Very powerful, but deep inside, too much anxiety, too much stress. "So where I go, I always say ... the ultimate source of happiness and successful life is within ourselves." The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, addressed the Possibilities civic summit organised through the Children in Crossfire charity, est...

Just how low can the market go? Research suggests the bottom is still some time away... Ronan Lyons of Daft.ie: 'The pace of the decline in house prices is gradually slowing' Sunnyside, The Burnaby, Greystones, sold at auction last week for €910,000 (€260,000 over the AMV) 65 Swilly Road, Dublin 7, a three-bed terrace with architect-designed rear extension, new to the market through Sherry FitzGerald for €295,000 Judging by the number of comments on the property page of the Sunday Tribune online, nothing gets readers reaching for the keyboard quite like that most contentious of topics – house prices. Then, to really get their goat, along came last week's headline in the Irish Times referring to a report on the European housing market by Standard and Poor...

Cowen on rack over 'homemade meltdown'... THE banking meltdown that cost taxpayers billions of euro was a result of "homemade" decisions and a government that thought "the party could last forever", two official reports revealed yesterday. In hugely damning findings, one report by two international banking experts pointed the finger of blame squarely at Taoiseach Brian Cowen for economic policies when he was Finance Minister. The reports will now be used by a commission of inquiry and an Oireachtas committee to look at what triggered the crash. But the inquiry will not be looking at a string of calamitous government budgetary policies to which Mr Cowen was central and it is not clear if the Taoiseach will be called before the committee. Former International Monetary Fund officials Klaus Regling and Max Watson said alarm bells should have sounded when the property boom and lending trends in the banking sector expanded -- as far back as 2003. They added that v...

We're facing worst crisis in history of State... FORMER president Mary Robinson yesterday warned the Government that the country is in the grip of possibly the worst crisis in the history of the State. She bluntly told the country's leaders that a lack of a vision of ourselves "lies at the heart of the crises we face" and warned that it was vital that example now come from the top and that the vulnerable be protected. The former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights yesterday became the first former president to deliver the General Michael Collins oration at Beal na mBlath in west Cork. Her speech centred on the scale of the crisis facing Ireland and how those in positions of power should deal with it. "Challenges of this magnitude demand not only detailed solutions but a comprehensive vision of what sort of society we want to see emerge from our current difficulties. "The likelihood is that, in the absence of a vision of our future which enjoys broad suppor...