Daft Property - Irish Property News

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...

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...

It is hard to know whether the threat by landlords to withdraw from State rental schemes and pass on a raft of charges to tenants is posturing, or a reality the Government will have to face. Housing Minister Simon Coveney's rent control measures outlined this week, which are expected to become law before Christmas, have certainly raised the hackles of the Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA), which has 5,000 members across the State. It said some members have threatened to withdraw from State-sponsored rental schemes, despite in many cases signing legally binding leases with local authorities. It has also proposed charging a payment to collect keys, imposing service charges and registration fees, obliging tenants to pay for parking and documents, and even asking tenants to contribute towards the Local Property Tax - which the Revenue Commissioners have said must be paid by owners, and not those renting. The IPOA's claims that its members are "hard-pressed" and ...

I’VE OFTEN referred, half in jest, whole in earnest, to the likelihood that the blame game would get underway and that everyone would start suing everyone else until eventually, the Irish State would have to accept responsibility for the bank crash. And, it looks as if that might happen if the Irish Property Council (IPC) gets its way, as last week it announced its intention to take the Irish State to court. The IPC is an organisation, which represents a broad range of people in the property business, including builders, developers and investors. (And, before you go into hysterics; this organisation represents everyone from the small guy with one little investment property, to the much-hated big-time developers who once owned vast property portfolios.) The IPC’s main bone of contention is that borrowers are the only ones being held responsible for the Irish property crash. Bankers, the financial regulator and the government appear to have got away scot-free, despite the fact that t...

The ordinary citizens of this State would be well entitled to ask if there is some point in the near future when we will stop being burnt by the great ongoing bonfire of the vanities of our former Celtic Tiger masters. They would be right, for such now is our 'state of chassis' that the Moriarty Tribunal ceased to be the central issue of public discourse after little more than two days. But when it comes to issues of survival, ethics will always come second to economics. Yet ethics is not unimportant either, for the issues Justice Moriarty dealt with cut to the heart of the colossal political failure of the first Irish Republic. Once again, another tribunal has revealed that we as a State are utterly incapable of governing or policing ourselves. And unfortunately this failure even extends to a tribunal which after 14 years of investigation has only provided us with the prologue to the resolution of the controversy about the mobile phone licence. The outside world, on wh...

House prices drop to 2002 levels after 14% fall last year... HOUSE PRICES have fallen back to 2002 levels, according to reports released yesterday. The average asking price for a home nationally fell by between 12 and 14 per cent in 2010, according to property reports from websites MyHome.ie, Daft.ie and auctioneers Sherry FitzGerald. All three reports found the rate of decline had slowed, but none predicted that the bottom of the market had yet been reached. However, real estate agents Savills said property in prime locations was unlikely to fall further. Leitrim was the only county in the Republic where property prices did not fall last year, rising by 1.4 per cent in the last three months of 2010. The average home has now dropped by between 35 and 48 per cent since the peak of the property boom, the reports found. MyHome.ie’s latest property barometer found the average home now costs €217,000, over 13 per cent less than this time last year. Sherry FitzGerald put the national price d...

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 ...

Nama: the truth it's a bailout for developers... The National Asset Management Agency (Nama), which was set up to cleanse the banking system of toxic debts, has been revealed to be solely a bailout for builders and developers. The stark truth of the agency's core objective emerged this weekend as the Government's banking strategy lurched towards outright nationalisation. The deepening crisis in European stock and currency markets forced the Educational Building Society (EBS) into state control as it failed to find private investors, and now market analysts say that AIB, the country's largest bank, will be effectively nationalised by the end of the year. The unravelling of the Government's banking strategy -- which was designed to avoid nationalisation -- came as Frank Daly, the chairman of Nama, announced that its "core objective will be to recover for the taxpayers whatever it has paid for the loans in addition to whatever it has invested to enhance property a...

Two in five executives fear 'double dip' recession... Almost 40 per cent of Ireland's top chief executives fear the country may face a "double dip" recession, according to the Sunday Independent Business Leaders Survey, a poll of Ireland's top 300 businesses. Economists have suggested the recession may technically end this year, with modest growth pencilled in, as Ireland piggybacks on a global recovery. But this growth may be short-lived as spiralling public debts, shattered consumer confidence, rising unemployment and potential interest rate hikes drive the country back into recession. The survey found that 39 per cent expected a "double dip", just ahead of 38 per cent of respondents who forecast that Ireland would escape a second recession. Almost 23 per cent were undecided. The American Chamber of Commerce estimates that up to 40 per cent of Ireland's corporation tax comes from US subsidiaries based here, and, if the recession deepens in the ...

Ireland’s share of an EU sponsored bailout of Greece would be between €200 million and €400 million, according to an exercise carried out for a European think tank. Open Europe, a broadly Eurosceptic think tank based in London, has estimated what each EU country would be required to pay if Greece was unable to refinance its debts, of which €20 billion to €25 billion will mature in the coming two months. Under a series of possible systems, it estimated that Ireland’s share of the bill would be between €227 million and €406 million. The broad range was accounted for by uncertainty of the size of the bailout and the system used for calculating the contribution. Open Europe said that meeting the cost of the bailout could be either spread among all members of the European Union or confined to those who used the euro as a currency. Ireland’s largest exposure - of about €400 million - would arise if only eurozone countries were required to pay. Under the system, Germany could be required to p...

Nanny state's pension plan is bitter pill for most of us... NANNY Hanafin, assisted by the two Bossy Brians, was in full swing yesterday. Work for longer, get less tax relief and, by the way, if you are not in a pension we are going to sign you up for one whether you like it or not. Yes, the 'Nanny State' knows what is good for us and was not shy about telling us yesterday. Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin, have decided many of us have been naughty, not nice. So they have prescribed a full dose of pension punishment for all. Naughty workers who failed to take out a pension when the boom was in full flow will now be automatically signed up for one. This measure will not impact on those who are already in an occupational pension scheme and those in the public sector. All workers under the age of 62 will have to work for longer. Those under the age of 49 will end up having to wait until they are 68 be...

The fall in house prices left many homeowners in negative equity, but this need not necessarily prevent you from trading up... IT'S the topic no one wants to talk about, but this elephant has no plans to leave the room. Negative equity happens when the value of your property on the open market amounts to less than the sum of your mortgage. If you bought a house within the past five years, you are likely to be in negative equity to some degree. The average household is sitting on negative equity estimated at €43,000, according to Irish Independent calculations based on a recent report by Goodbody Stockbrokers. It was estimated that 116,000 households were in negative equity at the end of 2009, rising to nearly 200,000 by the end of this year, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute. However, this is a conservative estimate based on prices falling by 24pc from their peak in 2007. If house prices end up falling by 50pc, this figure would rise to 350,000. It is general...

House prices fall 20pc but owners still battling to sell... THE average asking price of a house in Ireland has plummeted by almost 20pc over the past year, a new survey has revealed. And asking prices for residential property in Dublin's city centre have been slashed by almost a third, compared to the same period 12 months ago. A report by property website Daft.ie reveals that asking prices for residential property fell almost 6pc nationwide in the second quarter of the year, a significantly larger drop than in the first three months and in line with falls in late 2008. Dublin continues to be worst affected by tumbling house prices -- the average price tag on a home in the capital is 27pc lower than the 2007 peak, while prices for city centre houses have fallen by 34pc. During April, May and June of this year, homes in the city centre fell a further 11pc, compared to a 4pc drop for houses in Cork, 6pc in Limerick and a fall of just over 2pc for homes in Galway and Waterford cities...

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 ...

Ireland's Property Market: A Fallen Star? Ronan Lyons, Daft's in-house economist, commenting on the latest Daft research on the Irish property market... When we look back at 2008 in a few years' time, I think it's fair to say we will regard it as the annus horribilis for Ireland's property market. In late 2006, we issued a report which was the first to spot a slowdown in the property market. At the time, it was our view - unpopular though it was - that rising interest rates and high levels of supply would lead to a levelling off in house prices. This turns out to only have been the start of the story. Bursting onto the world stage at the end of the 1990s, Ireland was heralded as an economic phenomenon and rapidly became a global superstar and poster-child for economic development. But recently it looks like it's all just falling apart. Nowhere is this more evident than in Ireland's housing market - until recently the engine of Ireland's economic growth. ...