Daft Property - Irish Property News

Junkies and empty spaces litter streets where a dream died... The ill-fated Northern Quarter would have transformed our capital city: A mid-afternoon stroll around the place that would have been known as the Northern Quarter shows, emerging from the cracks, what we have come to expect in these days of broken dreams. There are junkies everywhere, in the numerous alleyways and on street corners, cravenly going about their business; there are the usual scatterings of beggars too, wrapped up quietly within themselves. In unequal measure, then, it is an uneasy landscape, both edgy and pathetic. People walk past, eyes in the distance, without taking notice -- or so it seems -- hurrying for trains, cars, buses, and bicycles, any mode at all out of the city and home. I was once familiar, indeed, with this area, before moving office in 2004, shortly after the arrival of the Luas -- a shining symbol of the new and of renewal, if ever there was one, at a time of optimism not that long ago. These

Crazy to sell in a buyer's market? If you are considering selling property but are afraid it might be neither nor viable nor sensible at this time, you may be pleasantly surprised to discover that there is a market out there – you just have to know your audience and what appeals to them... If you have a property that you are keen to sell, you may be debating the wisdom of doing so at a time when prices are dipping and so many others are holding back, but though it may feel like a lonely and risky path to take now, you would not be the only person in the country doing it. "We're seeing a mix of people selling at the moment," says Gillian Flanagan of Felicity Fox Auctioneers in Dublin. "We have a lot of people trading up, particularly young families with children who have outgrown the space they're in, people who need to move because their employment has changed location and people from different countries who are moving home. At the same time, a lot of people

Are these the cheapest apartments in Dublin? €159,000 price tag on these apartments in D15 set a new benchmark for starter homes in the city... CAPEL Developments is billing the one-bedroom apartments at its new Waterways scheme in Ashtown, Dublin 15, as the cheapest in the city. Priced at €159,000, the apartments in the canalside scheme are 35 per cent cheaper than when the first phase of the large development was launched by Capel back in 2005. In 2006, one-beds at the scheme were priced around €300,000, 47 per cent more expensive than today’s price. In a bid to clear overhanging stock, Capel Developments is offering deep discounts and now claims to be offering the cheapest one-bed apartments in the capital. The €159,000 one-bed units have 47–50sq m (505–543sq ft) of space. Also on sale from this weekend through Savills are 73–80sq m (790–860sq ft) two-bed apartments which are priced from €248,000. Three-bed top floor apartments have 85–105sq m (918–1,135sq ft) and are priced from €2

Dublin council to reduce affordable house prices... DUBLIN CITY Council is to discount its total stock of affordable homes to get rid of a backlog of 300 unsold houses that are costing the council upwards of €300,000 a month in bridging loans and fees. The council is to offer further discounts of about 25 per cent on houses it had already discounted by up to 35 per cent of the original market price to compete with developers’ discounts. Developers must provide 20 per cent of any new housing estate or complex for social and affordable housing. A discounted price for the affordable units is agreed on the market price. The discount in Dublin is generally in the region of 30 – 35 per cent. The council gives the developer names of people who are eligible to buy an affordable house. If two affordable house buyers reject the house or apartment, the council is obliged to buy it from the developer at the agreed discounted price. In a rising market, this system worked well. However, now that hou

Well-heeled south Dublin suburbs, commuter enclaves and student cities have all been devastated by the property price slump. But some have been hit worse than others and the pace of the fall in prices is picking up in some counties and cities. Nick Webb reveals where prices are falling fastest ... 1. Galway City 12.2 per cent drop at end of 2008 HOUSE prices in Galway City are falling faster than anywhere else in the Republic, according to new research. In the final quarter of 2008, house prices fell by a staggering 12.2 per cent. That means that between October to Christmas, the average house price in Galway shed €40,000, falling to just over €303,000 or by close to €450 per day. Galway city house prices have fallen by 21.1 per cent since the height of the property madness in mid-2006, according to Daft findings. The price haemorrhage was slower in Galway county, although it was still the seventh fastest falling market in the last quarter, with prices tumbling 7.2 per cent. Last week&

AS CHRISTMAS and 2009 loom some vendors are cutting prices to get buyers off the fence . Number 7 Claremont Road in Howth has a new asking price of €3.75m, down from €4.8m, a drop of €1.05m or 22 per cent. For sale through Savills, the four-bed Georgian-style home first came on the market in August. It ticks all the boxes for a trophy home with 418sq m (4,500sq ft) of space and three large reception rooms. A large basement could be used as a gym, music room or home cinema. Gunne Residential is asking €1.95m for an Edwardian semi - 4 Proby Square off Carysfort Avenue in Blackrock, Co Dublin - which is a 29 per cent drop from the original price of €2.75m. The house has been on the market a number of times in the past five years. In September 2003 it sold for €1.625m with 0.25 acres of rear and side garden with development potential. The following year the house sold with a substantially reduced garden for €1.5m. The six-bed, 300sq m (3,200sq ft) house is in a cul-de-sac. Gunne Residentia

How Low Dare You Go? ...With few property deals being done and prices in freefall , many vendors are wondering what their bottom line should be to get a sale... House prices are sliding – and fast. Yet while most vendors now accept that they have to cut prices in order to tempt buyers, despite all the potential bargains on the market, statistics suggest that buyers are still deterred. Lack of liquidity, the prospect of further price falls, job losses and a worsening economic climate are taking its toll. In 2007, 158,000 people drew down mortgage loans. Frank Conway of the Irish Mortgage Corporation suggests this is down by as much as 36% this year – so far. According to Sherry FitzGerald's latest House Price Index prices have fallen by 26% since their peak in June 2006, with prices down by as much as 32.8% in Dublin. At the lower end of the market, vendors slashing €60,000, €70,000, €80,000 off the price of their property is common. High-end homes have been reduced by hundreds of t

Latest round of cuts as vendors move to sell... Prices are tumbling at all levels of the market as homeowners accept that this is what's needed to tempt buyers ...four with deep price cuts: BAGGOT STREET FROM €5M TO €3.8M NUMBER 72 LOWER Baggot Street was priced at €5 million when it first came to the market in August 2006. Since then this price has been revised down to €3.8 million by selling agent Lisney, a cut of €120,000 or 24 per cent. One of the last inhabited houses on Lower Baggot Street, the four-storey over garden level terraced house has been used as a home and dental practice for many years. The 392sq m (4,200sq ft) of living space includes a self-contained flat in the basement. It is also one of the few houses on that part of Baggot Street to still retain its full garden and mews - a two-storey mews house with three small bedrooms, and rear access onto a laneway. The house was put up for auction back in September 2006, but failed to sell. It has been on the market quie

Dublin's early Xmas lights failing to dispel high street gloom... Christmas is coming early to Dublin this year as city officials try to dispel the gloom from the country's first recession in two decades. Mayor Eibhlin Byrne will switch on the Irish capital's festive lights display on Nov. 9, before cities such as London, New York and Edinburgh, after bringing the ceremony forward by three weeks from last year. ''For retailers, it's not an easy time,'' said Byrne. ''We are harking back to John F. Kennedy and we are asking not what your city can do for you but what you can do for your city.'' Irish shoppers powered the fastest-growing economy in Western Europe over the last five years. Now, consumers are cutting spending as unemployment rises and property prices slump. Gerry Harvey, chairman of Sydney-based electronics and furniture retailer Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd., which has four Dublin stores, described Ireland's economy as '

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

The Million Euro Man...We can rebuild him... Great to see Irish taxpayers money being spent on essential Dublin city projects! Why not pretend it's still "Celtic Tiger" time and just forget about Ireland's current recession, property crash, 3rd world conditions of public hospitals, spiralling cost of surviving and the debt the country is in etc etc!... Dublin says yes to giant sculpture in the Liffey ... On the Sunday Times... "Dublin city council has granted planning permission for Antony Gormley’s 48-metre statue in the River Liffey. Objectors to the Iron Man wire sculpture had included a group of 96 nearby residents who said it would tower over their houses on the quays. There is a four-week deadline for objections to be submitted to An Bord Pleanala. There were fears that the statue would become a roost for birds and be coated with droppings. One of the conditions set down by the council is that the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), which commiss

The 210 apartments in the nine-storey Gasworks building, in Ringsend near Landstown - Dublin 4, have been vacant since they went on sale two years ago. Developer Liam Carroll has since got the OK to convert the Gasworks apartments into a 520-bed hotel. However local residents are saying "no" to the plans and have appealed the proposal. Their main concern seems to be they will have to pay for the upkeep of common areas - hotel guests will not etc. The original promotion of the apartments, 2 years ago, by Hooke & Mac Donald mentioned: ...One of the most interesting and significant residential projects ever to be carried out in Dublin was launched on the market... A familiar feature of the South Dublin skylinehas been transformed. The striking metal cylinder of the former gasholder at Barrow Street creates a frame within which a stunning new nine storey block of large two bedroom apartments has been built. The curves of the building complemented by its dramatic glass fa

This is another favourite site of mine... The Best Dublin Ireland Live Webcam ...This is really excellent! See Ireland via live streaming video.... The Webcam features top Dublin sights, like the Ha'Penny Bridge, The Customs House, River Liffey, O'Connell Bridge as well as IFSC (Irish Financial Service Centre) and the new boardwalk on Bachelors Walk & a lot more. You gotta love it!

Bargain time again... This time it's in Smithfield, Dublin City Centre, where Chief O'Neill's is up for sale at €18 million - that's a whopping €3m price reduction from the previous price tag of €21 million in 2007! The modern 77-room hotel is well situated overlooking Smithfield Square, (or Plaza as it's now know,) in the heart of Dublin City. The Jameson Distillery tower is included in the sale. It was originally used to distill Ireland’s famous Jameson Whiskey (from 1895), the chimney, with its 360°panoramic views is now a popular tourist attraction. It has some spectacular views over Dublin city, port and surrounding Dublin & Wicklow Mountains. A nice buy!

With Dublin now suffering from major urban sprawl many developers are proposing building higher buildings. This makes sense but should have been started years ago before most of the greenbelt around the city was converted in bland, soulless housing estates. The U2 Tower, is a proposed landmark skyscraper, due to be constructed in Dublin (so called because of the involvement of U2 the rock band): The U2 Tower will be built in the South Docklands at the corner of Sir John Rogerson's Quay and Britain Quay by a unique meeting point of the River Liffey, the River Dodder, and the Grand Canal. The design was announced on October 12 2007 is by Foster and Partners (some of their other projects include Greystones New Quarter in Ireland, Millennium Bridge in London, Millau Viaduct Bridge in France to mention but a few.) The proposed Tower will consist of luxury apartments, with a public viewing platform at 100m, just below an egg-shaped pod that will be U2's recording studio. Above this i

Irish Property Market...Fact is Fiction & TV Reality? I love this!...A mockumentary video, used to promote a new property website for Ireland. This video fooled both the national broadcaster and city officials!