Daft Property - Irish Property News

Homes beside Google down 65% from peak... Over 800 people on list for 26 apartments and houses beside Google HQ with prices starting at €155,000 APARTMENTS and townhouses beside Google’s headquarters in Barrow Street, Dublin 4, go on sale today with prices starting at €155,000 – down an average 65.5 per cent from their peak values in 2006. Twenty of the Liam Carroll-built apartments along with six townhouses in the popular development are being sold by receiver Grant Thorton through sales agents HT Meagher O’Reilly New Homes. In an unusual move, Ulster Bank which financed Liam Carroll to build the development, is to offer mortgages for the purchase of the units, and will consider applications from investors as well as owner occupiers. Until now banks have been refusing mortgages to investors. However, David Browne of HT Meagher O’Reilly expects the units to sell mainly to cash buyers. The agency already has a database of over 800 potential buyers for the one, two and three-

Developers are offering substantially lower prices in the hope of shifting remaining units at schemes built in the last two to three years... PRICE CUTS of up to 40 per cent are being offered by builders in an attempt to get the stalled new homes market moving again and to clear unsold units. While price reductions are bringing many new homes back to pre-2006 prices and interest rate cuts have gone a long way towards improving affordability, lack of finance and negative sentiment remain as the big hurdles for potential buyers. A raft of new homes developers are hoping to shift remaining units at developments built in the last two to three years and are pitching prices at substantially less than the original asking prices. For many builders it is not a case of making a profit any more, it’s simply making some sales to cover the cost of building and paying off some of the debt on sites. Price cuts will be most prominent in large schemes on the edge of the city where developers have stru