Daft Property - Irish Property News

It's Boom To Bust for Ireland - in fact there are so many reports out that it's hard to keep up with them all! Here's a section of an Irish Times report tôday: "HOUSE PRICES plummeted in April as developers began to offload a glut of unsold houses at knock-down prices. But potential buyers grew more nervous about committing to the plunging property market, new figures show. The drop in the price of new homes was almost twice the national rate, as builders were forced to discount prices in an effort to sell a backlog of houses and apartments rather than wait for a bounce in the market. But figures from the Central Bank show that consumers have so far proved reluctant to take them up on the offer in great numbers, with the growth in mortgage lending last month falling to its slowest rate since 1992. The monthly drop in house prices accelerated from 0.7 per cent in March to 1.1 per cent in April, making it increasingly unlikely that the housing market will turn around thi...

It's Dire Straits and and new tune called "Time To Tighten Belts In Ireland!" The Irish Independent reports "Double trouble on fuel, house prices... Last night economists warned that consumers will have to "tighten their belts" and avoid all luxury purchases if they want to ride out the economic slowdown. Figures from the latest Permanent tsb/ESRI index revealed that house prices fell by 1.1pc in April, bringing the annual decline in property prices to 9.2pc. And an Irish Independent survey showed that the price of diesel has shot through the €1.40 barrier -- it has now increased by an average of 9c a litre in just two weeks. Friends First chief economist Jim Power said: "I wouldn't be recommending to anybody to be going out there taking debt on board at the moment or living beyond their means. "Definitely we are in a belt-tightening environment for the next couple of years. Anybody who behaves differently is being very naive and foolish....

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."

Latest figures confirm the "softening" in house prices and according to a report from the Irish Independent... " HOUSE prices fell by 9pc in the past year, wiping €27,500 off the value of the average home. National house prices fell by 0.7pc in March, according to yesterday's Permanent TSB/ERSI house price index. But the price decline for first-time buyer houses was greater, at 10pc, as potential buyers have been squeezed hard by banks hiking up interest rates for new customers. A 10pc drop in First-Time Buyer (FTB) house prices will see some 40,000 new buyers go into negative equity by the end of the year, according to Davy Stockbrokers. Negative equity is when the value of the mortgage is greater than the value of the home. Economists also warned that prices will have to fall further if first time buyers are to be enticed back into the market. New buyers have also been hit by the withdrawal of 100pc mortgages, and the need to find deposits of up to 10pc. Over a th...

Ariel View of Dublin's Stephens Green: Story from www. ireland.com - Saturday, 26th April, 2008: " Plans for the Metro North line entail excavating a large section of St Stephen's Green at huge cost. But some are questioning the wisdom of using the Green as a transport hub, and worry that the work will forever alter the character of the park. Frank McDonald Environment Editor reports. On November 1st, 2005, at the Government's fanfare launch of its €34 billion Transport 21 investment programme, then minister for transport Martin Cullen announced that St Stephen's Green would become the capital's key transport hub. "It will be to Dublin what Grand Central is to New York," he said. A discreet veil was drawn over the environmental impact of this radical proposal, particularly on the much-loved park that was given to the people of Dublin in 1880 by Sir Arthur Edward Guinness, Lord Ardilaun, under an Act of Parliament entrusting its long-term care to the C...

I read in the Irish Independent today that in Dublin's Temple Bar, once a property hotspot, that..." prices are beginning to drop: a spacious second floor, period-style one-bed, renovated 15 years ago on Parliament Street, with views of the Liffey and the evening sun, has been on the market for two months and the price is down from €365,000 to €345,000. At the Friary, off the cobblestones on Fownes Street, a one-bedroom west-facing apartment over Luigi Malone's restaurant is €410,000, but expected to drop. In Temple Bar Square, the quarter's heartbeat, a two-bedroom apartment, with access to a precious roof terrace and views of the city's skyline has been on the market a year and is available for €450,000. In the tenant zone, plans are in the early stages to refurbish and upgrade some of derelict Crampton Court apartments with its little garden, car-parking spacess and views overlooking the Liffey. And to rent? Despite so few properties being available, bites are s...

I like this: 'Dublin's Liffey Quays' in 2032 is part of IMAGEN Architects winning entry to a competition run by Architecture Ireland / Plan Expo. IMAGEN's proposal for the Liffey Quays 2032 was to consider the River Liffey as a green urban spine to the expanding city. The Quays would become vehicle free, except for carbon-free public transport systems, which would reinvent the Quays as a series of major public spaces, pocket parks and 'green bridges'. Hueston Station and Croppy's Acre would become the Quay's western gateway. Dublin's 'little Venice' allows the city to step down to the water's edge. O'Connell Bridge would now become a new public space connecting the city as an urban plaza and meeting place. The Docklands reinvents itself as a new international transportation hub. This would facilitate future high speed rail connections to Belfast and possibly the UK, alongside an expanding business district. The Docks would become a ...