Daft Property - Irish Property News

MANY PEOPLE selling their homes are still looking for prices higher than buyers are likely to pay – and the difference between asking and selling prices can be as much as 20 per cent. For while property website surveys published this week show residential property price falls since the peak of the property boom of between 43 and 52 per cent nationally, estate agents say that actual selling prices are now down by around 60 per cent and more. The lack of specific information about property sales prices means that buyers and sellers are still largely in the dark about what is actually happening in the property market. This should change in June, when a property price register detailing recent sales, with addresses and prices, is published by the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA). The figures published by property websites MyHome and Daft are all based on asking prices. Meanwhile, the CSO’s most recent residential property price index, published in late December, showed prices...

10.8pc plunge in Irish house prices... House prices in Ireland are falling at a double-digit rate but property values in other countries are showing signs of stabilising, research indicated today. The average cost of a home in Ireland dropped by 10.8pc during 2010 as the market suffered from the fall-out of the country's economic problems, according to estate agent Knight Frank. The drop was the biggest recorded for the total of nearly 50 countries looked at by the group. The pace of the falls are also showing little sign of easing, with property losing 3.5pc of its value during the final quarter alone. Steep price falls were also seen in Dubai, with property values diving by 6.1pc during the third quarter of 2010, the latest quarter for which figures are available. But there was better news for those who have bought second homes in France, with house prices in the country actually rising by 9.5pc during 2010. The more conservative French mortgage market means that hous...

House prices could fall 13.4% this year in bank test scenario... HOUSE PRICES could fall by a further 13.4 per cent this year and 14.4 per cent next year before recovering in 2013 under a scenario considered by the Central Bank to stress test the banks. This would represent a 55 per cent decline in house prices from the peak of the market in 2007. But under a worst-case scenario, house prices may fall by 17.4 per cent this year and 18.8 per cent next year, which would be a decline of 60 per cent from the peak. The Central Bank, which published details of the scenarios yesterday, is testing the lenders to see how much of the €35 billion set aside in the EU-IMF bailout fund for the banks will be needed. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan acknowledged yesterday that more than €10 billion may be required, but said he had “no idea at this stage” how much more was needed. He was speaking after he and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin met senior officials ...

You can see them every day at Dublin’s International Airport. Couples locked in teary embraces, damp-eyed mums and dads farewelling sons and daughters. Friends promising to stay in touch. 1000 people are leaving each week, heading to the four corners of the world in search of work and a better life. Many, like electrician Alan Niland and chef Sean Sherry are going to Australia. “Leaving here is a big thing and everyone doesn’t want to go. It’s a last resort really.” ALAN NILAND Irish Electrician Alan‘s heading to Melbourne and the promise of a job with an Irish electrician. Sean Sherry has been unemployed for the first time in a 25 year career and his fruitless job search has dragged on for 12 months. He now has no choice but to leave his girlfriend and her daughter and take up a job offer on a cruise ship operating from Australia. He has to work to service the mortgage on a house that has crashed in value. “I was driving home one day and I just had a panic attack. What will I ...

Grinding despair of negative-equity generation hangs over all our lives... All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Arthur Schopenhauer Ireland, 2031. A teenager and his teacher are walking out of an economics class. "My God, what lunacy," says the teen. "I can't believe that the banks were allowed to behave like that." "I know," answers his lecturer. "Imagine, they were able to sell full-recourse mortgages to naive first-time buyers, often way over 100 per cent, without any risk to themselves whatsoever. No wonder they all went mad and pushed money on any poor sod they could." "And then when the crash came, all the big property borrowers and the banks were protected by the Government via Nama and the bank guarantee, while all the small homeowners were screwed?" "Correct, son." "That's not capitalism,...

Up to 300,000 homeowners in negative equity Further 30,000 will struggle with mortgage payments after Budget tax increases kick in... THE spectacular fall in property prices is even worse than was stated by a government economic think tank last week -- up to 300,000 homeowners are now in negative equity. Expected interest rate hikes will mean another 30,000 people -- roughly the population of Dundalk -- will struggle to meet their mortgage payments by the end of the year. The recession, joblessness and rising interest rates already mean that 70,000 borrowers have missed payments or renegotiated their mortgages. Now financial institutions are expected to increase their standard variable rates. It is also widely expected that the European Central Bank will increase its interest rate before the end of the year. This would also hit those on tracker mortgages. Michael Dowling, of the Independent Mortgage Advisors Federation (IMAF), said: "With rising unemployment, higher ...

Bailout will total more than the EU ever gave us... Noonan says interest rate must be renegotiated by next government: THE €85bn IMF-EU bailout will come to more than the total amount of payments received since we joined Europe in 1973, the Sunday Independent can reveal. Fine Gael's Michael Noonan said yesterday that this stark fact showed why the interest rate levied on Ireland must be renegotiated and that any new government's hand will be strengthened by this revelation. In cash terms, Ireland has received €63.7bn from Europe in various agricultural, social and cohesion funding -- far less than the bailout forced on the Irish by Jean Claude Trichet's European Central Bank in late November. When those payments are adjusted for inflation, they total €99bn -- that is fractionally more than the total cost of the bailout when the penal interest rates are factored in. When Ireland's payments to Europe are subtracted, our net receipts from the EU budget amount t...

Now that the old days are gone, if any house is to sell it has to shine. But sell it can, writes Rose Martin... IN this market, it’s possible to get a bigger house, in a better location for the same price as the house you have now. The only snag is you have to sell your own, and more than likely at what would be deemed a loss. But then, the asset value of properties given during the boom were notional, and so too is the price you probably carry round in your head as the value of your own house. In order to move and get where you want to be, then you must scrap preconceptions if you are to sell. And that’s not as daunting as it seems — the lower end of the market is doing well, so selling the semi to buy that larger or detached house is possible. You just need to accept the hit and relish the fact that you’re buying low — the swings and roundabout school of property economics. And when you’ve decided on moving, put the house on the market immediately — but only after you’ve ch...

House prices drop to 2002 levels after 14% fall last year... HOUSE PRICES have fallen back to 2002 levels, according to reports released yesterday. The average asking price for a home nationally fell by between 12 and 14 per cent in 2010, according to property reports from websites MyHome.ie, Daft.ie and auctioneers Sherry FitzGerald. All three reports found the rate of decline had slowed, but none predicted that the bottom of the market had yet been reached. However, real estate agents Savills said property in prime locations was unlikely to fall further. Leitrim was the only county in the Republic where property prices did not fall last year, rising by 1.4 per cent in the last three months of 2010. The average home has now dropped by between 35 and 48 per cent since the peak of the property boom, the reports found. MyHome.ie’s latest property barometer found the average home now costs €217,000, over 13 per cent less than this time last year. Sherry FitzGerald put the national price d...

A momentous year which went from bad to worse... Siobhan Creaton uses the alphabet to summarise the main events of what proved to be a tumultuous year for Ireland A The nightmare that is Anglo Irish Bank continued in 2010 when its staggering €35bn of bad loans finally bankrupted the country. Some of the bank's top brass were arrested and questioned by gardai, and the Director for Public Prosecutions will decide next year whether they will face charges for their recklessness. Sean FitzPatrick did suffer the humiliation of being made bankrupt while his protege David Drumm filed for bankruptcy in the US where he may fare better in the long run. For many months politicians dithered and differed over how to solve the Anglo problem before finally agreeing to wind it down. So in 2011 Anglo Irish Bank will disappear forever but Irish taxpayers will be paying for its failure for many years to come. B 2010 will go down in history as the year when Ireland agreed to take an €85bn bailout from ...

Thousands of horses and ponies abandoned in Irish countryside as financial crisis bites... Tens of thousands of horses and ponies are believed to have been abandoned in the Irish countryside as families struggle to cope with the financial meltdown. Animal welfare inspectors have had to shoot some of the worst affected animals left badly weakened by exposure, starvation, sickness and injury. With costs of feeding or keeping the horses in stables running to £26 per day, generations who have kept horses as a passion have no longer been able to afford to keep them. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has pledged £12.8billion in spending cuts and tax increases over the next four years. The austerity measures are expected to lead to a 10 per cent cut in the disposable income of Ireland's middle class, and worse for those on lower incomes, leaving them without the funds to care for domestic pets. Irish law requires owners to have animals registered and microchipped, but it is not rigidly enf...

FF's parting gift of corporate welfare will sink the country... A farmer told me he had just taken €53,000 out of the local bank and put it under his bed YESTERDAY was the feast of the Immaculate Conception. In many other Catholic countries, particularly in Belgium and southern Holland, this is also the week that Santa comes and leaves presents in children's shoes. For many, both the Immaculate Conception and Santa Claus are simply not believable. For me as a child, December 8 was a day off school and that's all that counted. What would Christmas be without Santa, or Catholicism without the Immaculate Conception? You can't have one without the other. Even if you don't believe, sometimes it is easier to pretend. The Budget was akin to the Government playing a big game of 'let's pretend'. Let's pretend that the banks are solvent. Let's pretend that the problem in Ireland is 'social' welfare rather than 'corporate' welfare (because t...

It's a scandal, we're still being screwed to pay bankers their bonuses... This must be the final insult. In three days' time, Brian Lenihan's Budget will take a big chunk of money from every taxpayer in the country to bail out our failed banks. Now we discover that those same banks have already been using public cash to pay their staff handsome bonuses and salary increases that will ensure they escape the worst of the pain. Needless to say, this information has not been exactly been freely volunteered by the banks themselves. In fact, it has only emerged because the backbench Fianna Fail TD Chris Andrews put down a written Dail question on the issue last Wednesday. A new opinion poll suggests that as few as 16 FF TDs could be returned in the coming general election -- but Andrews' willingness to confront his own Government's policies suggests that if there's any justice, he will be one of them. The evidence is clear. Over the last two years, most workers hav...

Bailout will sink Ireland before we can even swim... Foreign banks and creditors should lose everything they gambled on the likes of Anglo, but instead, they have been saved by the taxpayer Make no mistake about it, this 'bailout' will sink Ireland. We are witnessing a monumental struggle between the innocent average Irish person and the guilty creditors of the bust Irish banks. Interestingly, the financial markets have seen through what the Government and the elite are trying to do and have reacted with ferocious negativity to the Irish deal. The markets realise that the Irish State is not bust; rather the Irish banking system is bust. Therefore, rational people can see that any deal which is framed to give Ireland a chance has to sever the link between the bust banks and the solvent State. However, far from severing the link, the deal solders the link between State and banks, making the Irish Republic itself little more than a bust bank. The rest of the world has twigged that...

Householder to carry heavy can for errant banks... HOUSEHOLDERS will be hammered. That is the clear message from the four-year austerity plan issued yesterday by the Government. In plain language, if you own a home, have a pension and a son or daughter in college, you will end up more than €4,600 a year worse off by the time all of the changes in this plan have been implemented. Many of the changes will impact early on in the four-year plan, putting additional pain on family budgets. Middle Ireland is set to pay an extortionate price for the failures of our banks, our regulators and the Government. And significantly, there are no measures in the four-year plan to levy the errant banks. Instead, homeowners will bear the brunt. Personal finance experts last night warned the taxes, levies and charges would push many families over the edge financially. The downturn has left many consumers just one bill away from financial collapse. The severe measures in the four-year plan could be enough ...

Cowen accepts the bailout but not the responsibility... As a result of an ill-judged edit, viewers of the national broadcaster missed the liveliest and most telling part of the press conference held tonight at Government Buildings by the current Taoiseach Brian Cowen and the current Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan. TV3 host and Irish Times columnist Vincent Browne asked Cowen if he accepted that he was to blame for “screwing up the country”; that he more than anyone else was responsible for Ireland’s economic catastrophe and that his continued presence in office was “a liability” to the nation. “I don’t accept that at all,” replied Cowen, grumpily. “I don’t accept your contention [or] the premise to your question that I’m the bogeyman you’re looking for.” Minutes earlier, a Bloomberg television journalist who asked if Cowen had ever thought of packing it in was told that the process of electing a Taoiseach was a parliamentary matter… mumble, jargon, mumble. As for whether or not he ...

A nation's outrage to drive Cowen out... Poll: public welcomes the IMF but roundly furious at government ‘lies’ THE Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, and his Government are at risk of being ignominiously driven from office, such is the level of anger sweeping the country this weekend. The people have broadly welcomed the arrival of the IMF, are largely indifferent to emotive sentiment associated with a perceived loss of national sovereignty, but are roundly furious at the manner in which the Government has “lied” about the unprecedented events of last week. As the Government now strives to further “spin” itself out of what is, by any measure, a glaringly obvious credibility deficit, its efforts to do so will be hampered by a disintegration of cohesion within its own ranks. This weekend, the Taoiseach is at odds with the governor of the Central Bank; the Minister for Finance is in agreement with the governor and, therefore, at odds with the Taoiseach; and at least two senior Cabinet ministers...

We need to re-trace our steps and go over what a complete mess has been made of this country.. . IS sovereignty of so little account that two senior cabinet members can consider throwing it away while the rest of the Government don't even know their leaders are doing this? What is being done to our country? Who will buy us, or sell us, next? What has really been going on since Brian Cowen concluded his disastrous occupation of the Finance Ministry and graduated to his even more disastrous holding of the job of Taoiseach? We need to re-trace our steps and go over again what a complete mess has been made of this country's governance, bringing us the acute embarrassments of this week. It began with Anglo, followed by all the other banks. It then proceeded to the Lisbon Treaty vote, enhancing Europe's powers over our sovereignty. Then it floundered into the disaster called NAMA and ended with debts that needed international rescue. It concludes with loss of sovereignty. Anglo f...