Daft Property - Irish Property News

1,000 a month seek help to pay mortgage... MORE than 1,000 people a month are turning to the Government for help to pay their mortgages. But as many as half of them are being turned down some months. The dramatic rise in the numbers who cannot afford to meet their monthly mortgage repayments has underlined the scale of the crisis affecting a growing number of desperate homeowners. The mortgage interest relief supplement is designed to cover the interest portion of the home loan. Those seeking aid have to show they negotiated to reschedule the mortgage payments with their lender. They also have to be means tested. And both husband and wife must be out of work. The increase in applications comes at a time when mortgage interest rates are at record lows. Expected rises in the next year are likely to push substantially more people to the financial brink. Figures obtained by the Irish Independent reveal that the Government expects to have to spend €60m this year helping homeowners to pay th

For God's sake get a move on... THE message from the OECD is clear. Translated into the vernacular, it is: "For God's sake, get a move on, lads" The secretary general of the helpful international body warned that cuts in public spending should begin immediately. In other words, the idea that a restructuring, spread over three to five years, would solve the crisis in the public finances is misguided. Mr Angel Gurria was probably too diplomatic to say as much in public. Instead, he looked Brian Lenihan in the eye and told him: "The problem is that you may not have time, Mr Minister . . . The markets are zeroing in on countries." The "markets" are loaning this country €2bn a month so that the Government's pay cheques for public and civil servants will not bounce, and so that the 160,000 private sector workers who have been thrown out of work in the past year will at least have some euro to buy food for their families. Yesterday's lowering of I

'Ireland is a disaster . . . leave now and enjoy your life'... On these pages last week, Shane Fitzgerald, a young graduate of University College Dublin, wrote about the Government’s failure to deliver on its promise of a bright future in Ireland for him and his generation. Rather than draw the dole here, he left recession Ireland behind him – departing “these bankrupt shores” for London. His experience rang true for many online readers, some of whom reacted with strong antipathy towards our politicians. Here is an edited selection of how they see Ireland and its politicians. JAY: BORN and educated in Dublin, I emigrated to Canada in my 20s after working around the British Isles for a few years after graduation. My best advice, based on my very varied, interesting and relatively successful life filled with rich experiences and career choices, is to leave now and enjoy your life. Ireland is a disaster. It is sorely mismanaged and misruled and destroyed by its own absurdity. Ther

Property prices to fall 45% from 2006 peak... Property prices in Ireland could fall as much as 45 per cent from levels seen in late 2006, as the economic downturn and increased costs of funding the banks weigh on the market. According to Fitch Ratings, the average house is curently worth 7.5 times the average income, a ratio that is expected to fall to nearer 5.5 times the average individual income. "Tax rises, high unemployment, wage deflation and property supply overhang continue to undermine the country's property market," says Alastair Bigley, Head of Irish RMBS at Fitch. Property prices have fallen 24 per cent to date from a peak in December 2006, Fitch said. "Despite almost three years of house price declines, prices have yet to reach a sustainable level of affordability," says Douglas Renwick, Associate Director in Fitch's Sovereigns team. The difficult market will be further pressured by a rise in the cost of funding to financial institutions, drive

Ireland’s choice: €4bn in cuts or IMF... THE Government has raised the spectre of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) coming in to run the country if people don’t accept the savage €4 billion of cuts to be imposed in the December budget. Taoiseach Brian Cowen and his Cabinet colleagues have launched a PR offensive to soften people up for the cutbacks, saying the black hole in the public finances was unsustainable . Mr Cowen said everybody would have to make a contribution to help solve the crisis "according to their means". Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said Ireland would face "ruin" if action wasn’t taken to get the national debt under control . Green Party leader and Environment Minister John Gormley said there was no point misleading people about how difficult the budget would be. And Health Minister Mary Harney warned that if the Government didn’t take the necessary tough decisions, the IMF would do so instead. "We’re currently spending €500m a week more

Negative equity hits €43,000 as average debt soars to €130,000... Report paints grim picture of economy... THE collapse in the housing market has left the average household sitting on €43,000 of negative equity. A borrowing frenzy during the boom means Irish households are now nursing debt levels which are the fifth highest in the developed world. The average household owes €230,000 on its mortgage alone, excluding credit card, personal loans and other debts. These figures have emerged from calculations based on a new report on the economy from Goodbody Stockbrokers. Goodbody's Dermot O'Leary estimates that the bursting of the housing bubble has sent house prices down by 40pc from their peak in February 2007. This means the average house in the State is now worth around €187,000. There are 640,000 households with a mortgage, and the average household is sitting on negative equity estimated at €43,000, calculations based on the Goodbody report by the Irish Independent show. The

7 Reasons Why Ireland Will Be Left Behind... IRELAND POST-RECESSION: As the first signs of economic recovery are seen in the US, Ireland faces a glut of problems that could see the country left behind while the rest of the developed world returns to fiscal prosperity. LAST JUNE when Ben Bernanke thought he spied some green shoots of recovery in the US economy, another American economist, Nouriel Roubini, referred to them as yellow weeds, while Warren Buffet claimed not to have seen anything, even though he had just had cataracts removed from his eyes. In recent weeks there is more reason for optimism in the US and most commentators would be of the view that the US economy may show some modest growth in 2010, though the unemployment rate might be slow to come down. Because America is a relatively closed economy the robust fiscal stimulus and quantitative easing were bound to pay dividends. American recessions usually don't last much longer than a year. Some recovery in the same time

Fiscal ruin of the Western world beckons... For a glimpse of what awaits Britain, Europe, and America as budget deficits spiral to war-time levels, look at what is happening to the Irish welfare state... Events have already forced Premier Brian Cowen to carry out the harshest assault yet seen on the public services of a modern Western state. He has passed two emergency budgets to stop the deficit soaring to 15pc of GDP. They have not been enough. The expert An Bord Snip report said last week that Dublin must cut deeper, or risk a disastrous debt compound trap. A further 17,000 state jobs must go (equal to 1.25m in the US), though unemployment is already 12pc and heading for 16pc next year. Education must be cut 8pc. Scores of rural schools must close, and 6,900 teachers must go. "The attacks outlined in this report would represent an education disaster and light a short fuse on a social timebomb", said the Teachers Union of Ireland. Nobody is spared. Social welfare payments m

Rise and fall of the Tiger nouveau riche... NOW THAT we’re in an economic war zone, I’ve been thinking about the Economic War. As my family was a direct victim of that conflict, I was reared with a rather one-sided view of the times that went beyond the abstract account in history books... My great-grandfather retired from a successful medical career and bought land in Meath which he farmed profitably. He must have done well because my grandfather was educated privately in England and in a literal manifestation of his position in society there was even a family pew in the upstairs gallery of the rural parish church. All went well until Éamon de Valera, the most pernicious and malign figure in Irish history, in a fit of ideological insanity implemented a set of policies that cut off our country’s only export market – England – for our only product – food – and thus crippled Ireland’s economy and in the process permanently ruined that class of people to which the now poor Dr Carey belong