Daft Property - Irish Property News

Despite movement in the property market in the first six months of this year, little has changed really. Prices are still falling, the banks are continuing to enforce tougher lending criteria and discussion about the dreaded property tax has loomed its ugly head again instilling fear among most homeowners. Bank sales of apartment blocks that have gone bust have gained interest from buyers as the banks try to recoup some of their loans. But what’s going to happen for the rest of the year? Houses have started selling again, but are the volumes worth talking about and are bank sales going to become a common feature of the property market? Some commentators consider successful sales of receivership properties a sign of a recovery starting, others view them as a negative influence on an already struggling market. There has been considerable debate about a levelling-out of property prices or ‘‘a bottoming’’ of the market since the start of the year. Instead we’ve seen prices continue to fall...

More price cuts as season starts... There will be a drop in the supply of houses new to the market in 2009, but sellers are still having to cut prices - again... THE DUBLIN property market has opened with price cuts at all levels of the market, as sellers digest news of the country's deteriorating finances and economists' gloomy forecasts. Estate agents are taking a fresh look at their stock and advising sellers to reconsider prices. The reassessment is going on at all levels of the market, according to Peter Kenny of Colliers, where notable price cuts include €130,000 off a three-bedroom penthouse in a development at Old Conna, Riverdale, on Dargle Road, Bray, Co Wicklow. The 130sq m (1,400 sq ft) apartment with river views has has been reduced from €560,000 to €430,000. Colliers has also dropped the price of a four-bedroom semi at Burnaby Mill in Greystones from €720,000 to €580,000 in an effort to attract buyers, while in Dún Laoghaire, Gunne has just dropped the price of an...

Property prices fall further as Dublin second-hand homes drop by 10.4%... THE AVERAGE cost of a new house was just over 3 per cent lower in the first three months of this year than in the same period last year, according to new figures from the Department of the Environment. Prices of second-hand houses suffered a sharper fall of 5.4 per cent, but the greatest decline was in the price of second-hand houses in Dublin which were 10.4 per cent lower in the first quarter of the year than in the same period of 2007. The price of new houses in the capital fell by 4.8 per cent... The department's housing statistics show a steady increase in the provision of social and affordable housing, but very steep declines in the total numbers of houses built and started in the first three months of the year. Just over 14,000 houses were completed, a decline of 30 per cent on the first quarter of 2007. The number of houses on which construction began was even more dramatically reduced. There were jus...

I see on the Irish Times that "THERE'S A NEW realism in the west of Ireland property market, where Galway builders O'Malley Construction dropped prices on a scheme back to 2003 levels, in order to shift completed houses. They offered homes at two schemes, Leargan on the Western Distributor Road, starting at €295,000, and also at Boireann Bheag with a mix of houses and apartments starting at €200,000. The discounts varied between €25,000 and €70,000 and it looks like the gambit paid off with 40 deposits last Saturday, according to agent O'Donnelan & Joyce."