Daft Property - Irish Property News

Number of mortgages in arrears hits new peak of 14pc... ONE in seven mortgage holders is now in arrears, according to calculations by a leading ratings agency. Large numbers of these homeowners are understood to be avoiding getting into talks with their banks on restructuring their mortgages. Moody's also said house prices would fall another 20pc. The rating agency said its calculations show 14pc of residential mortgage holders are now in arrears, which works out at 107,000 households. This is a new peak, it said. Figures released by the Central Bank last month showed 10.2pc of mortgage holders were three months or more behind on their payments. "The steep decline in house prices since 2007 has placed the majority of borrowers deep into negative equity," it said. "Irish house prices have already fallen by 49.9pc between September 2007 and April 2012, and Moody's expects that house prices will fall a further 20pc from today's levels." Central Bank figu...

Massive €1m slump in value of D6 houses should attract canny buyers There is strong anecdotal evidence that the decline is worse than official figures suggest... IN May 2008, blue-chip auctioneering firm Douglas Newman Good confidently sought offers in excess of €1.55m for a "well-proportioned, mid-terrace Victorian home" on Waverly Terrace at the end of Kenilworth Square North on Dublin's southside. Later this month two properties on the same leafy Rathgar street, both currently split into flats, will go under the hammer in a distressed properties sale. One of the houses will have a reserve which will not exceed €240,000, while a neighbouring house has had its maximum reserve set at €380,000. It's a price drop of €1m in a little more than three years on properties that boast a revenue stream which should, on the face of it, attract canny investors who have cash. Rathgar remains a sought-after locale for young professionals who want to rent not far from th...

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...

Nama turns us into a nation of speculators... OPINION: Builders and developers have finally managed to shape the country in their own image... THE DRAFT National Asset Management Agency (Nama) legislation runs to 136 pages, so it’s not too surprising that most people have missed the interesting section 201. It reads as follows: 201.1: Henceforth, all male children shall be called Seán, Seánie, Paddy, Mick, Tom, Joe, Gerry, Liam or Bernard. All female children shall be christened Seona, Patricia, Michaela, Tomasina, Josephine, Geraldine, Wilma or Bernadine and shall be referred to de facto as Seán, Seánie, Paddy, Mick, Tom, Joe, Gerry, Liam or Bernard. 201.2: From the coming into force of this legislation, all citizens shall be required to receive a daily dosage of testosterone and cocaine to induce feelings of competitive aggression and megalomaniacal omnipotence. 201.3: All male citizens shall wear a pink shirt as a declaration that said citizen is so macho that he can wear pink and n...

Crazy to sell in a buyer's market? If you are considering selling property but are afraid it might be neither nor viable nor sensible at this time, you may be pleasantly surprised to discover that there is a market out there – you just have to know your audience and what appeals to them... If you have a property that you are keen to sell, you may be debating the wisdom of doing so at a time when prices are dipping and so many others are holding back, but though it may feel like a lonely and risky path to take now, you would not be the only person in the country doing it. "We're seeing a mix of people selling at the moment," says Gillian Flanagan of Felicity Fox Auctioneers in Dublin. "We have a lot of people trading up, particularly young families with children who have outgrown the space they're in, people who need to move because their employment has changed location and people from different countries who are moving home. At the same time, a lot of people ...

The blame game for the boom is well underway, says Isabel Morton... LAST SEPTEMBER, I rather boldly suggested that we might all consider suing the banks. I am now interested to hear that it is to come to pass. Investors are planning to sue Anglo Irish Bank. Given what we now know about the specific circumstances of that particular bank, it is understandable that investors, who lost a lot of money, are now somewhat sore about it all. However, the idea that property developers are also considering suing Anglo Irish Bank is not quite as easy to fathom, particularly as they are suing based on the grounds that the bank behaved negligently by breaching the guidelines of sensible lending practices. My initial reaction to this news was: that the property developers have some nerve; and that they hadn’t a hope in hell of succeeding. But, having thought about the basis of their argument, I could see that the same argument might actually be applicable to many of the loans and mortgages obtained b...

The 210 apartments in the nine-storey Gasworks building, in Ringsend near Landstown - Dublin 4, have been vacant since they went on sale two years ago. Developer Liam Carroll has since got the OK to convert the Gasworks apartments into a 520-bed hotel. However local residents are saying "no" to the plans and have appealed the proposal. Their main concern seems to be they will have to pay for the upkeep of common areas - hotel guests will not etc. The original promotion of the apartments, 2 years ago, by Hooke & Mac Donald mentioned: ...One of the most interesting and significant residential projects ever to be carried out in Dublin was launched on the market... A familiar feature of the South Dublin skylinehas been transformed. The striking metal cylinder of the former gasholder at Barrow Street creates a frame within which a stunning new nine storey block of large two bedroom apartments has been built. The curves of the building complemented by its dramatic glass fa...

Down, Down, Get On Down... So just how low can it get? Irish Times Property News: "Deep price cuts in end-of-season sales. WITH summer holidays looming and a glut of €1 millon plus homes on the market, and the realisation is finally setting in that a drastic price cut could be required to secure a buyer. While the property market has seen price "adjustments" across the board, heavy discounts are now offer in some cases. In the six properties listed here, the average price cut is 33.4 per cent. The slowdown has been particularly tough on high-end properties, which have a smaller pool of potential buyers. Price drops of over 30 per cent can mean upwards of €1 million being shaved off the asking price. KILLINEY: -31% EIRENE ON Marino Avenue East in Killiney, Co Dublin, came on the market in March at €6 million. Now three months later Savills HOK has cut the asking price to €4.15 million for the two acre property which is a stone's throw from the Dart and beach and may h...

Ireland is going from one extreme to another - Boom to bust! With so few people now buying property in Ireland, instead waiting to see how much more prices will drop, the whole building scene in Ireland has slowed dramatically . The Live Register figures for January, just published, by the Central Statistics Office show a continuing increase in unemployment numbers during February. Many of these new unemployed are former Construction Industry workers. The numbers on Social Welfare, in Ireland, are now highest for the last eight years at 5.2%. Meanwhile SIPTU has rejected a request by the Construction Industry Federation for a 12-month pay freeze and a 30% cut in entry rates for construction workers. Perhaps this would have helped things?

According to a new report from Britain's Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Ireland's house market was the worst performer in Europe for 2007!

Another look at Ireland's daft Property Market In 2008... Property "bargains" in the news today: The Ivory Building Apartments, Dublin 2 prices cut... 1 Bedroom: 2007 €390,000 - now €299,500 2 Bedroom: 2007 €489,000 - now €429,500 3 Bedroom: 2007 €650,000 - now €525,000 Dunboyne Castle in Co Meath prices cut... Apartments 1 Bedroom: 2007 €285,000 - now €210,000 Apartments 2 Bedroom: 2007 €325,000 - now €249,000 Apartments 3 Bedroom: 2007 €365,000 - now €285,000 Houses: 4 Bedroom: 2007 €600,000 - now €499,000 According the Irish Times Newspaper, lower priced homes are selling, and "THE STRATEGY of dropping prices for new homes is increasingly paying off, proving that buyers love a bargain." ...They add that the price reductions have made property, in Ireland, "accessible for first-time buyers who until now have been holding off. Sure enough the bargains have come along, and at a greater discount than most people had expected. Expect to see even more develope...