Daft Property - Irish Property News

TODAY’S Allsop/Space auction in Dublin’s Shelbourne hotel will be an interesting test of the longevity of the mass auction and whether it’s here to stay or a mere passing fad. Savills Ireland is getting in on the act in September with the promise of around 100 investment properties. with low reserves and prime locations in Dublin. Not wanting to be left out, auction specialist Merlin Group – better known for its car auctions – announced its move into residential property earlier this week. It is getting properties from banks and says it already has 40 for its first big auction in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin in early autumn. Allsop/Space might find it hard today to match the drama and impact of their – and the country’s – first – discounted auction back in April, which saw €14.8 million worth of deals struck in just six hours on vastly discounted properties in prime locations. This time around it has 87 distressed properties around the country with reserves as low as €40,000 on

House prices continue to tumble despite faster selling time... HOUSE prices are continuing to plummet with asking prices now as much as 47pc lower than the peak just four years ago. A new report from property website Daft.ie says that although homes are selling faster, prices are continuing to fall. And the findings are confirmed in a separate report from myhome.ie, albeit with variations in the average asking price for a house. Daft.ie says the average asking price in June was €196,000, down 47pc from the peak. The myhome.ie survey says the average asking price nationally is now €249,000, 40pc down on peak. Prices of new homes are now back at the 2001 level, myhome.ie adds, with average asking prices of €239,000 in Cork, €234,500 in Galway, €185,000 in Limerick, while the Dublin figure is €286,000. Daft.ie said that Dublin asking prices fell by 5.26pc over the past three months, and now the typical figure is half of what it was during the peak in 2007. South County Dub

HOUSE prices in Dublin have gone into a 60pc freefall from their peak and are now at levels last seen in 2002. The cost of buying a home in Dublin fell by 16pc in June compared to the same period last year. In real terms, Dublin house prices have fallen by 60.2pc, from the peak of the market in 2006, according to Sherry FitzGerald estate agents. The national market has corrected by 55.2pc and the average cost of a second-hand house in Ireland dropped by 15.3pc. First-time buyers remain the most active sector in the market, accounting for almost one-third of the properties traded in the year to date. Chief economist Marian Finnegan with Sherry FitzGerald said the falls placed the Irish property recession as one of the most significant recessions in the post-war era. "Accelerating deflation in the property market cycle is somewhat contradictory as the factors underpinning the market have strengthened with improved affordability and relatively tight supply, particularly for

Some Dublin rents among highest in EU despite decline... The relatively high rents for Dublin prime office and retail accommodation are highlighted by the latest Knight Frank summer survey of European rents and yields. Dublin's prime shopping centre rents, at €3,750 per sqm per year, are the second-most expensive of the 25 cities surveyed and surpassed only by London's West End, where rents average €5,556 per sqm. Parisian rents, at €2,000 per sqm, are little over half those in Dublin. Dublin shopping centre rents are the only ones to show declines. Keiron Diamond, director at Knight Frank Ireland, points out that many distressed tenants have secured rent reductions or other forms of deals with landlords, some of whom, however, are reluctant to publicly acknowledge rent cuts. The values of Dublin shopping centres have declined and this is also reflected in the yields, which at 7.75pc, shows the values are the fourth cheapest in Europe. Some might argue that the high

Ballsbridge home for under €400,000 in distressed auction... Developer and landlord David Grant will see his former home on Haddington Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 go under the hammer for less than €400,000, a quarter of its original asking price, at the Allsop/Space auction of distressed properties next month. Number 61 Haddington Road failed to sell at auction in 2006 with an advised minimum value of €1.6 million, but now it’s likely to be sold for about a quarter of the price next month. The mid-terrace building is being auctioned ‘‘on the instructions of the mortgagee in possession’’ with a reserve not to exceed €395,000, according to the auction catalogue. Grant’s former home is situated on the south side of Haddington Road, just off Baggot Street. The accommodation is arranged over lower ground, raised ground and first floors beneath a pitched roof. Internally it’s arranged as two-self contained residential units. It is being sold with vacant possession. In October 200

Ailesbury Road pad for sale at 6th of price... A PERIOD house on Dublin's Ailesbury Road will be offered for sale next month at €1.45m -- just a sixth of its boomtime value. The large residence, with one of the city's most desirable addresses, would have been valued at over €10m at the height of the property market. It is being priced at €1.45m in a sale of distressed properties on July 7 next. Another impressive Rathgar property, which is now divided into five self-contained flats, could have reached anything close to €2m at one stage, but has had its reserve set at €495,000. And a home at the foothills of the Dublin Mountains with almost an acre of land has been listed as one with offers from €450,000 -- slashed from more than €1m in 2006. The sales are part of three further auctions of distressed properties lined up for Dublin after the massive run on discounted houses earlier this year. Banks eager to get more properties off their books have turned to auctione

Property prices continue to slide... House prices in Dublin have fallen nearly 50 per cent since their peak in 2007, the Central Statistics Office has said. According to the CSO’s Residential Property Price Index, house prices in the capital are 46 per cent lower than 2007, while apartment prices have fallen 53 per cent since their high in February 2007. Nationally, residential property prices fell by 1 per cent in the month of April. This compares with a decline of 1.7 per cent recorded in March. The index, which looks at property on a national level, shows residential property prices throughout the rest of the country are 36 per cent lower than their highest level in 2007. Overall, the national index is 40 per cent lower than its highest level in 2007. Dublin apartment prices fell by 1.8 per cent in the month of April and were 14.1 per cent lower when compared with the same month of 2010, while house prices fell 0.7 per cent and were 12.6 per cent lower compared to a year e

Distressed property auction by Savills... AROUND 100 distressed investment properties, mainly in the greater Dublin area, are to be auctioned on a single day in September. The move by Savills Ireland to kick-start both the residential and commercial investment markets is expected to generate sales of over €20 million. Ronan O’Driscoll, of Savills Ireland, said most buyers at the September 29th auction were likely to be cash-rich investors happy to put their money into property now that values had fallen sharply. In the past, investors banked on capital appreciation but it was now all about rental return and in many cases buyers could expect yields of 9 to 10 per cent compared to 3.5 per cent on bank deposits. The announcement that Savills will be staging Ireland’s “biggest ever property auction” comes after last month’s successful auction of distressed properties in Dublin by British auctioneer Allsops and its Irish affiliate Space. They sold 80 of the 81 lots in a packed Shelb

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

Market hasn't hit bottom despite 40pc drop in four years, say economists... HOUSE prices are likely to continue to fall for another two years, analysts predicted yesterday. It came as a new, official index of residential property prices from the Central Statistics Office showed a 12pc fall in the past year. It also found that the pace of decrease has picked up in the past two months Prices are down 40pc from their peak level in 2007. Dublin has suffered much higher losses in value, with the crash cutting prices almost in half. In the rest of the country they are down by a third. The fall of 47pc in the capital contrasts with a plunge of 35pc elsewhere. Sharp drops in prices were recorded in February and March. The fall of 1.7pc in each month was the highest since July 2009. However, these decreases mainly reflect sales agreed last November when the €85bn IMF/EU bailout was agreed. The fact that the country was being bailed out meant that the only property transacti

'Ireland is b***ixed' says hairdresser to the stars Marshall as iconic salon shuts... Iconic Dublin hair stylist David Marshall, has shut his flagship salon on Dawson Street after 30 years. The salon, which opened in 1981, closed for business after struggling with high overheads. Mr Marshall blamed the salon's closure on the pressures of high rents and overheads at a time when business was retracting. "It's an awful lot of pressure on small businesses," he said. "You are going to see a lot more closures over the next couple of years." Mr Marshall, one of Ireland's most famous stylists, is now focussing on the David Marshall Academy and School, where he will still be on hand to tend the locks of his long-standing clients. He continued: "It's a sad day but the whole country is b***ixed," he said. "In my mind there is no give for small businesses anymore." He said there will be some job "casualties" wh

National group to oversee efforts to deal with ghost estates... A NATIONAL co-ordination group is to be established within weeks to oversee action by local authorities in dealing with the most problematic ghost housing estates, according to Minister of State for Housing and Planning Willie Penrose. Addressing the Irish Planning Institute’s annual conference in Galway yesterday, he said one of his top priorities was that “clear, decisive and proactive actions are taken to progressively resolve the issues with unfinished housing developments”. It has emerged that the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) has 10 per cent of about 150 of the worst ghost estates that are unfinished and pose health and safety issues. The vast majority of the ghost estates that require the most work were financed by the foreign-owned banks operating in Ireland. About 28 per cent of the loans at Nama relate to land and development and about 16 per cent are in the Dublin area, where there is a great

Homes beside Google down 65% from peak... Over 800 people on list for 26 apartments and houses beside Google HQ with prices starting at €155,000 APARTMENTS and townhouses beside Google’s headquarters in Barrow Street, Dublin 4, go on sale today with prices starting at €155,000 – down an average 65.5 per cent from their peak values in 2006. Twenty of the Liam Carroll-built apartments along with six townhouses in the popular development are being sold by receiver Grant Thorton through sales agents HT Meagher O’Reilly New Homes. In an unusual move, Ulster Bank which financed Liam Carroll to build the development, is to offer mortgages for the purchase of the units, and will consider applications from investors as well as owner occupiers. Until now banks have been refusing mortgages to investors. However, David Browne of HT Meagher O’Reilly expects the units to sell mainly to cash buyers. The agency already has a database of over 800 potential buyers for the one, two and three-

We're surrounded by empty houses - so why did council give go-ahead for even more homes? RESIDENTS in an area of north Dublin awash with empty homes are objecting to plans to build even more new properties. Homeowners in Brackenwood, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, say there is no need for a new development of 18 units, since they are already flanked by empty homes in surrounding estates. The developers, Parkway Partnership, were last week granted planning permission for the units, which will be located adjacent to Brackenwood, after they modified their original application. CRAMMED But local resident Rose Allen said: "We don't need any more houses. Who has the money to buy houses now? "Now we have a developer coming in who wants to build 18 houses and it's the only green that we have in our estate. They're all going to be crammed in because the site is no bigger than a football pitch. "It's in our own green area. We've no field, no trees in

Irish property could still be overvalued by 30 percent... Irish house prices increased by around 330 per cent between 1996 to 2007 – a bubble of impressive scale and duration, but a bubble nonetheless. Plenty of outside observers saw the writing on the wall and said so, but they were overlooked in the Celtic Tiger gold rush. The European Central Bank (ECB), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Financial Times, the Economist and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) all spoke of dire portents early and often. They were ignored. Cheap and easy money arrived in Ireland just as the tiger economy geared up. The country adopted the euro and access to a large pool of low-cost European finance with it. When the bubble burst Ireland's main domestic financial institutions were wiped out and European institutions and the IMF took over the nation's financial affairs. So the question now is has the country reached the end? According to a report i

The bargain hunters were out in force today in Dublin! It was a busy day at the Shelbourne Hotel where many cut-price homes and properties were sold. Here are the Allsop Auction results: Lot Type Location Reserve Price will not exceed this figure 1 Vacant Flat Temple Bar Sold €126,000 2 Investment Flat Dublin 1 Sold €129,000 3 Investment Flat Dublin 8 Sold €102,000 4 Investment Flat Dublin 8 Sold €159,000 5 Investment Flat Bray Sold €154,000 6 Investment Freehold Building Clifden Sold €141,000 7 Investment Flat Portlaoise Sold €61,000 8 Investment Flat Portlaoise Sold €62,000 9 Investment Freehold Building Roscrea Sold €336,000 10 Vacant Freehold House Dundrum Sold €410,000 11 Vacant Flat Dublin 1 Sold €120,000 12 Vacant Flat Dublin 1 Sold €116,000 13 Investment Flat Dublin 1 Sold €190,000 14 Vacant Flat Dublin 7 Sold €107,000 15 Vacant Freehold House Renmore Sold €332,500 16 Investment Freehold Building Renmore Sold €205,000 17 Investment Flat Dublin 8 Sold €15

Property prices now down 51pc from peak of boom... HOUSE prices across the country are now worth less than half of their value during the property boom, according to the latest price survey. The Sherry FitzGerald price index shows that average prices for second-hand homes nationally have fallen to 51.1pc of their highest value during the peak of the housing boom in 2006. Prices have dropped even further in the capital with the average second-hand home in Dublin now worth almost 56pc less than in 2006. The stark figures released yesterday reveal that the value of houses across Ireland is now back at early 2002 levels. At a comparative level it means prices -- especially in the Dublin market -- are now the same as they were 20 years ago. The grim news comes on the same day that banking stress tests released by the Central Bank yesterday predict the four leading banks will need an injection of €24bn in capital to offset future losses. Among the predictions are that they stan

'Bang twins' may never get to run a business again... POST-boom Ireland is awash with cautionary tales of Celtic Tiger excesses, as a rattle around the carcasses of fallen property developers and entrepreneurs will show. Few can compete with the so-called Bang twins for youth, glamour and tasteful extravagance. Simon and Christian Stokes, the 35-year-old identical twins behind Bang Cafe and exclusive private members club, Residence, saw their entire business go bust with debts of €9m, €3m of which is owed to the tax man. The debt may be in the ha'penny place compared with the eye-watering billions owed by some of their former customers. But their fall has been arguably steeper and more damning than some of the country's richest tycoons. Last week, further humiliation was heaped on them with revelations that even as their businesses were going under, the twins spent €146,000 of company money in 18 months on designer shopping sprees, five star holidays and sumptu

Hundreds of repossessed homes in Ireland to be sold by auction... UK property consultancy Allsop to hold auction in April at Dublin's Shelbourne hotel: Flats in Ireland that could have fetched €150,000 in the Celtic Tiger years are to be put on the market for as little as €25,000 (£21,000) in the country's first ever mass auction of repossessed homes. And, in a sign of how wide the property crash is, the latest item to turn up in liquidation sales in Dublin is a job lot of 15 cranes, including a pair towering over Anglo Irish Bank's half-built headquarters in the city's docklands. "Tower cranes were among the most sought-after heavy plant and machinery 10 years ago," Ricky Wilson of Wilsons Auctions says. "You couldn't buy them quick enough. Now they are left idle for two or three years on sites." He has 15 cranes worth €500,000 going on sale on 26 March, with German, Dutch and Polish buyers expressing interest. But it is the auction

Emigration set to hit one-in-four city households... POLL: Quarter of young people want to leave. MORE than one in four Dublin households will experience emigration within the next 12 months. The scourge of forced emigration has yet to peak, a new poll of over 1,000 people has found. A major brain-drain is on the horizon as 23pc of young people aged 18-24 say that they intend to leave Ireland by early 2012. An analysis of the Millward Brown Lansdowne poll for the Herald shows that the exodus will include tradesmen, college graduates and other newly unemployed young people. Almost one in ten (9pc) people interviewed said they personally intend to emigrate within the year. And 20pc said another member of their household planned to move away to places like Australia, Canada or the US. More men than woman are ready to move overseas but those leaving are spread across all social classes. Around one in six are unemployed while one in eight are self-employed. The poll found