Daft Property - Irish Property News

New-house completions at lowest since 1970s... HOUSE completions are to fall to their lowest level since records began in the 1970s. The number of new homes expected to be finished next year will be 10,000, whereas even during the recession-hit 1980s the lowest number of completions was 15,654 in 1988. A gloomy economic forecast from the Department of the Environment says it will be another two years before we see a return to economic growth. And it says that the estimated 150,000 unsold homes currently on the market will discourage new building activity for the next four years. The Construction Industry Outlook 2009-2011, conducted by DKM Economic Consultants for the department, finds that the current downturn in the industry is the most severe on record and that the number employed in the industry could fall to just 138,000 by the end of the year. This is half the number employed in 2006 at the height of the boom when 267,000 people worked in construction. New figures from the Depart...

House prices to fall until 2012, industry bosses told... HOUSE prices will continue to slide until 2012, it has been claimed, as construction chiefs were told the industry will never be the same again. Yesterday’s figures also show that lending to the construction industry soared from €10 million in 2001 to €115m at its peak. The statistics were revealed at the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) conference in Cork. Labour party leader Eamon Gilmore said that the industry will never again employ the same number of people as it did two years ago. He said there will again be a demand for new housing but he wants a construction industry – like any other – that is sustainable. At its peak in 2007, the industry employed 280,000 direct employees and a further 120,000 indirect, equivalent to 19% of total employment. Today it employs 200,000 but the CIF said that another 100,000 direct and indirect jobs could still be lost. Mr Gilmore also said there is huge scope for reform in Ireland’s pl...

Does the following sound fimilar?... " This is an extraordinary period...Over the past few weeks, many...have felt anxiety about their finances and their future. I understand their worry and their frustration . We've seen triple-digit swings in the stock market. Major financial institutions have teetered on the edge of collapse , and some have failed. As uncertainty has grown, many banks have restricted lending. Credit markets have frozen. And families and businesses have found it harder to borrow money. We're in the midst of a serious financial crisis ... First, how did our economy reach this point? For more than a decade, a massive amount of money flowed ...from investors abroad, because our country is an attractive and secure place to do business. This large influx of money to... banks and financial institutions -- along with low interest rates -- made it easier...to get credit. These developments allowed more families to borrow money for cars and homes... some for the ...