Daft Property - Irish Property News

IRISH house prices plummeted at almost the fastest rate in the world last year, new research has revealed. Ireland was placed in 48th position in a rating of house growth across 50 countries for last year, with prices dropping by 11.9pc. Russian houses plummeted by as much as 13.7pc in the same period while Malta was also above Ireland's fall at 14.1pc. Meanwhile, one of the fastest growing economies in the Dubai house prices fell by 8.2pc for the year, according to the survey by Knight Frank. Asia remains the top-performing continent with a recorded 8.4pc growth over the last 12 months, but even this figure is a significant fall from 17.8pc a year earlier. Performance Head of residential at Knight Frank, Liam Bailey, said that at first glance at the results table, it would suggest it's business as usual, with Asian countries firmly implanted at the top of the table and both Europe and North America languishing behind. "But there are a few less predictable re...

We will default, so let's get on with it. But it's not all bad -- a top financier thinks Ireland's glass is half full and our bank debts will be shared... Ireland will default, when it does happen we should not do it alone but with Greece and Portugal; we should consider leaving Europe given how badly they treat us; we need to take a scalpel to our public sector and Ireland will take five to seven years from now to recover. Those are the views of Larry McDonald, former Lehman Brothers vice president turned international best-selling author, who was in Dublin last week speaking at the Irish Funds Industry Association. McDonald was, until September 2008, vice president of distressed debt and convertible securities trading at Lehman Brothers. He was heralded by many colleagues at Lehman for both his early 2006 call on the subprime crisis and the $46m in trading profits realised from it. I sat down with him on Friday afternoon last in the heart of the IFSC to discuss ...