Daft Property - Irish Property News

Has the property market truly bottomed out? And not only that, but showing some signs of life? Well yes and no. Very encouraging signs are there for all to see. The newspaper property supplements are less anaemic and signs proclaiming "Sold" which have been as rare as hens' teeth are suddenly being seen in some of the better Dublin enclaves. Agricultural land is making record prices. And there are tentative signs that if potential buyers can survive a searching examination of their finances -- now so intimate that it would shame a proctologist -- there are mortgages being approved. Even property auctions, a leit-motif of the halcyon days of the boom, are making a re-appearance after a five-year absence. While there are huge tracts of the country where the residential property market is still on life support there are at least some signs elsewhere that suggest the patient is out of intensive care. Recovery has started in Dublin, not all of the capital, but in the areas...

Next big hot potato is property tax of up to €1,000... There's little hope of a property tax being fair and equitable on the already squeezed middle classes, says Daniel McConnell. Can you afford to pay €1,000 a year in a property tax? Well, according to the man charged with designing such a tax, that is what we will, on average, all pay once it is introduced. Don Thornhill, a career civil servant who describes himself now as a consultant "who advises on strategy and policy to a number of leading Irish organisations" has recently presented his report to Minister Phil Hogan recommending how such a property tax should work. Politically toxic and highly unpopular, the lack of enthusiasm of either Fine Gael or Labour to discuss the matter is a clear sign of the trepidation that surrounds the idea of lumping the extra burden on the shoulders of the Irish taxpayer, but in particular the "squeezed middle classes". Phil Hogan's department is saying nothing othe...

Allsop Space Auction Venue - 6th July 2012 The Shelbourne Hotel Dublin 2 Start Times Single Session Auctioneer’s Announcements 10.45 a.m. Lot 1 not before 11.00 a.m. Lot     Type     Location     Reserve Price will not exceed this figure 1    Investment Flat    Dublin 2    €135,000 2    Investment Flat    Galway City    €120,000 3    Investment Flat    Malahide    €75,000 4    Vacant Freehold House    Killiney    €95,000 5    Vacant Freehold House    Galway City    €50,000 6    Investment Freehold House    Newbridge    €30,000 7    Land/Site    Gort    €27,150 8    Investment Flat    Dublin 8...

The next Allsop Space Auction will take place on 1st March 2012... Venue: The Shelbourne Hotel Dublin 2 Online Catalogue: Lot     Type     Location     Reserve Price will not exceed this figure 1    Investment Flat    Dublin 1    €135,000 2    Investment Flat    Dublin 8    €120,000 3    Investment Leasehold House    Galway City    €75,000 4    Investment Flat    Dublin 8    €90,000 5    Vacant Freehold House    Drogheda    €100,000 6    Vacant Freehold House    Enniscrone    €55,000 7    Vacant Freehold House    Dingle    €50,000 8    Investment Flat    Dublin 1    €175,000 9 ...

Building ban on rezoned land leaves taxpayer with huge bill... THE taxpayer will be forced to pick up the tab as councils ban housing on massive banks of land -- bought for billions by property speculators at the height of the boom. The value of development sites has plummeted by more than 90pc, after councils rezoned land which is no longer needed for housing. The Irish Independent has learned that 12 of the country's 34 local authorities have already dezoned or banned development on lands. The remainder will do so by the end of the year, under a radical shake-up of planning system countrywide. But the move will have serious implications for taxpayers. Banks lent billions for speculative deals on those lands which have since collapsed -- with the State now forced to pick up the bill. Housing will now no longer be allowed to be built on 8,000 hectares previously earmarked for development in 12 local authorities alone. At the height of the boom, this land could have sold f...

Zonning frenzy brought us down - and made us finally see sense... THE maps would arrive in their hundreds, each accompanied by a letter urging the council to rezone the highlighted land for housing. "When a review of a development plan started, and people saw the notices in the paper, that's when the race started," one insider said. Everyone with a few acres believed their land was ripe for a few houses or apartments. And for the most part, city and county councillors obliged, zoning more than 44,000 hectares of land for housing, even though there was need for only a fraction of that. Eventually the State was awash with unfinished developments and NAMA found itself lumped with €73bn of land and development loans. We've finally come full circle, and are in the middle of moving to a system whereby land will only be earmarked for housing when there is clear evidence there will be enough people to live there. Every council in the country has been told to int...

Auction Results for the 87 Lots sorted by Lot Number Lots: 1-87 1 Vacant Flat Dublin 1 Sold €148,000 2 Investment Flat Blackrock Sold €270,000 3 Investment Freehold Building Clondalkin Sold €139,000 4 Investment Freehold House Stepaside Sold €146,000 5 Investment Flat Dublin 7 Sold €177,000 6 Vacant Freehold House Castlebar Sold €87,000 7 Vacant Leasehold House Dublin 3 Sold €67,000 8 Investment Flat Dublin 1 Sold €145,000 9 Investment Freehold Building Bray Sold €220,000 10 Vacant Freehold House Stillorgan Sold €280,000 11 Vacant Freehold House Tyrrelstown Sold €129,000 12 Land/Site Blackrock Sold €66,000 13 Vacant Freehold House Thomastown Sold €50,000 14 Investment Freehold House Kilkenny City Sold €440,000 15 Investment Flat Blackrock Sold €285,000 16 Investment Flat Dublin 9 Sold €55,000 17 Investment Freehold Building Drogheda Available €290,000 18 Vacant Flat Arklow Sold €71,000 19 Vacant Flat Dublin 1 Sold €132,000 20 Vacant Freehold House Dublin 4 Sold ...

Land rezoned for 800,000 more homes than needed... Glut highlights role councillors played in fuelling the boom. COUNCILS have rezoned enough land to build almost 800,000 new homes that the country does not need, an Irish Independent investigation has found. Local authorities have rezoned enough land to construct almost 1.1 million houses and apartments across the country at a time when thousands of homes lie empty in 'ghost estates'. But official projections received by the Government have found fewer than 300,000 new units are needed between now and 2016. The revelation highlights the extent of the role councillors and planners have played in fuelling the property boom which collapsed with devastating consequences. Some councils including Meath rezoned up to 60 times more land for residential use than was needed. Just two out of 34 councils -- Limerick and North Tipperary -- under-zoned land. Councils who designated too much land for housing will now be forced by the Governme...

It's time to shout 'stop' -- NAMA is grand larceny... The land has reverted to the price you'd get from a farmer for putting a donkey out to graze on it For the past year, this column has been warning of a "triple lock" in the Irish banking system, which would financially incarcerate the Irish people for a generation. The triple lock would solder the people to the banking system in a suffocating embrace forcing us to borrow from tomorrow to pay for yesterday and, in the process, destroy the opportunities of today. Now with the Government upping its stake in Bank of Ireland, this prediction -- regretfully -- is coming to pass. The worst thing is that it doesn't have to be like this. The latest news that some development land in Athlone valued in the boom at €31m is now worth only €600,000 has truly terrifying implications for all of us, because it means NAMA will bankrupt us, and the triple lock implies that we can't sever the fortunes of the people fro...

Property spend plunges €40bn... Irish spend on property has crashed by 60pc in 2008 compared to last year, with expenditure down by a crushing 73pc -- or around €40bn -- since the market peaked in 2006. Our property spend is forecast to fall to €15bn this year -- down from €45bn in 2007 and a heady €54.4bn in 2006, according to the latest 'Property Outlook' from Savills. Joan Henry, head of Research at Savills Ireland says that all sectors of the property market have been affected -- most obviously the new homes area. The total spend on new homes is expected to fall from an estimated €23bn in 2007 to just €6bn this year. Spend in the Irish investment market is expected to be down as much as 75pc from last year's €2bn. Spend on domestic land is expected to fall by a staggering 80pc. In the new homes as in the second hand market, prices have fallen by as much as 30pc this year and maybe more if looked at on an individual basis. "Successive price reductions this year, cou...

Irish Property Market...Fact is Fiction & TV Reality? I love this!...A mockumentary video, used to promote a new property website for Ireland. This video fooled both the national broadcaster and city officials!