Daft Property - Irish Property News

Problems at 'ghost estates' identified... So-called “ghost” housing estates are posing serious health and environmental dangers through problems such as incomplete sewerage systems, water contamination, unfinished roads and open manholes, a study has found. The issues have been identified in a pilot study in Co Laois, ordered by the Department of the Environment, on the likely effects of the sudden end to the building boom, particularly in rural areas. The study, which assessed housing developments that were granted planning permission in the county in the last five years, found a quarter of them had health and safety problems. It also emerged that local authority requirements for builders’ bonds are in many cases seriously inadequate. The bonds are supposed to be taken out to ensure estates are completed. In some cases the requirements appear to have been ignored completely. Minister of State with responsibility for planning Ciarán Cuffe said it was expected that most of the u...

Half of us now in negative equity misery... HUNDREDS of thousands of Irish homeowners could face negative equity as early as June. A report from NCB stockbrokers has outlined that as many as 45pc of householders could owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth. NCB economist Brian Devine says that house prices, as officially measured, are still overvalued. "Our estimate for Ireland suggests the number of homes in negative equity ranges between 29pc and 46pc depending on the price decline assumed," Mr Devine outlined. NCB believes prices are already 35pc below their peak, meaning close to one in three homeowners are already in negative equity. "There is little reason to believe that house prices will not continue to fall as future employment prospects remain bleak, further tax hikes are in the pipeline, confidence remains low, emigration is likely and there remains a large supply of properties for sale," the NCB report claimed. "Affordability may have ...

Cuffe backs demolition of some 'ghost' estates... NEW GREEN Party Minister of State for the Environment Ciarán Cuffe yesterday said the blame for unfinished, or “ghost” housing estates lay with “the ‘cargo cult’ of rezoning for all the wrong reasons” that drove development in recent years. In his first major speech since taking office last month Mr Cuffe said “selective demolitions will be a necessary part of the tasks required to tackle the legacy of one of the more unsavoury aspects of Ireland’s building boom”. Addressing the annual conference of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) in Tullamore, Co Offaly, he said: “I have no doubt that some loans that will come into the possession of the Nama will result in the demolition of badly designed buildings in inappropriate locations.” But demolition would not be the only option. “We now have to look quite realistically at the future use of unfinished estates and the needs of residents . . . It’s not as simple as sending in a bulldoz...

Demolition the only way to build a better future... WITH THE building frenzy of the last decade and a half, who would have thought that we would be thinking of knocking some of it down again? But Brendan McDonagh, chief executive of Nama, probably got it right when he talked about the need to demolish some of the surplus stock in out-of-the-way locations. Everyone now knows that some of these estates will never be lived in, because they are not within easy commuting distance of jobs, or because there simply was never a market for them in the first place. It wasn’t just the bankers and the developers who got it wrong. The planners in the various local authorities have also made grave errors in allowing many of these estates to be developed in one horse towns and obscure villages. These developments – many of them large executive-style homes – simply did not make sense, even in buoyant times. Some of them are now an eyesore, and could disappear even faster than it took to build them. The...

House prices 'set for further 10pc fall' says leading economist... House prices will fall by another 10pc before the market hits rock bottom next year, a leading economist predicted today. Jim Power, chief economist of Friends First, believes while the recession is likely to end around the middle of this year, consumer confidence and spending will continue to be undermined by wage cuts, an uncertain labour market and further reductions in state spending. The finance house revealed six out of 10 consumers are not confident in the Government's ability to revive the economy, with a third backing a Fine Gael/Labour coalition to do the job. Mr Power said it was difficult to be convinced the economic situation will improve considerably in the near future. "The Irish economy is going through an extremely difficult adjustment and the situation remains precarious. It is way too early to sound the all clear," he warned. "A fundamental reform of taxation and spending is...

New report will show number of empty homes well above 300,000... With so much vacant property about, councils are now actively seeking homes to rent from a minimum of 10 years for those on waiting lists... A REPORT being finalised by planners at UCD for publication this month is expected to conclude that the number of empty houses or apartments in the State may be even higher than the 302,625 figure suggested recently by their colleagues in NUI Maynooth. Dr Brendan Williams, lead author of the UCD report, told The Irish Times that “our figures might be higher”. He had also visited some uncompleted housing estates last weekend and they painted a “bleak picture” of the current levels of vacant housing. The 300,000-plus figure, calculated by the Maynooth-based National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis (Nirsa), took a lot of people by surprise – especially as the Construction Industry Federation had been sticking to a vacancy rate of around 40,000. It was also way above the Depa...

Over 600 ghost estates stand as haunting legacy of crash... THE startling scale of Ireland's property crash is laid bare today as academics reveal that more than 600 'ghost' estates are scattered around the country. For the first time, a comprehensive map charts the locations of the empty and abandoned developments that stand as haunting monuments to the Celtic Tiger splurge . The analysis suggests pockets of the north-west and midlands will be worst hit by a housing glut that will take years to sell off. Largely rural counties Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon and Sligo have the highest number of partially built and semi-vacant housing estates when measured against their populations. Their relative distance from major cities is expected to compound their oversupply problem for the foreseeable future. Although Cork has 96 so-called 'ghost' estates and Dublin 58 -- the highest figures by county -- it is believed that their urban populations can absorb the surplus much soo...

State to rent Nama properties for social housing... The government plans to rent thousands of vacant houses and apartments from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and use them for social housing. Representatives of the new ‘bad bank’ have held meetings with officials in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to explore the possibility of renting out properties that would otherwise lie empty. Housing minister Michael Finneran said his officials were seeking to ensure a ‘‘social dividend’’ from Nama by renting residential units on long-term leases for social housing purposes. Finneran said an arrangement could help to deliver ‘‘a return in line with Nama’s mandate’’. The government is under pressure to demonstrate to the European Commission that Nama will be capable of generating significant ongoing cash flows over its lifetime, and that the new agency will not be excessively generous to participating banks. While a move to rent properties for social ho...

THE head of Ireland's auctioneers and the former Finance Minister Ray MacSharry have clashed over the future of the so-called 'ghost estates' left over from the property boom. President of the IAVI (Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute) Aine Myler has suggested that some new estates may have to be demolished altogether as part of an ongoing effort to restore stability to the property market. Speaking to the Sunday Independent at the IAVI's annual conference in Dublin on Friday, Ms Myler said that as a result of poor planning and a lack of infrastructure, some of the country's newer housing stock may never be required. Asked what could be done with these developments, Ms Myler said: "It's really difficult to know. It shows up a number of issues that emerged during the boom, where there was poor planning, the building of large estates where there was no infrastructure, no transport links and other links which have probably diminished in the meantime as a r...