Daft Property - Irish Property News

Down, Down, Get On Down... So just how low can it get? Irish Times Property News: "Deep price cuts in end-of-season sales. WITH summer holidays looming and a glut of €1 millon plus homes on the market, and the realisation is finally setting in that a drastic price cut could be required to secure a buyer. While the property market has seen price "adjustments" across the board, heavy discounts are now offer in some cases. In the six properties listed here, the average price cut is 33.4 per cent. The slowdown has been particularly tough on high-end properties, which have a smaller pool of potential buyers. Price drops of over 30 per cent can mean upwards of €1 million being shaved off the asking price. KILLINEY: -31% EIRENE ON Marino Avenue East in Killiney, Co Dublin, came on the market in March at €6 million. Now three months later Savills HOK has cut the asking price to €4.15 million for the two acre property which is a stone's throw from the Dart and beach and may h...

On UTV TV... "Bursting the Bubble... Insight investigates falling housing prices in Northern Ireland... A year after Insight warned that Northern Ireland was witnessing a bubble in the housing market, the programme returns to the subject. Reporter Jamie Delargy explores what has been driving prices down. He talks to those in the construction industry, the removal business and estate agency world whose trade has been impacted by a drastic fall in the number of house sales. One of the big banks here explains why they’ve had to tighten their lending criteria. A home owner explains reveals how she feels about a thirty thousand pound drop in the value of her new home. And we hear about the developers who overpaid for land, some of how now risk going bust." "Bursting the Bubble" Part 1: "Bursting the Bubble" Part 2: "Bursting the Bubble" Part 3:

According to the Sunday Independent Report..." Divorce to soar as economy plummets... LAWYERS are reporting a "massive upsurge" in the number of couples seeking advice on separation and divorce since the beginning of the year, a development which may be linked to the current economic crisis. Some family law solicitors are anticipating that even greater numbers of wealthy people will break up, as the reality of the economic downturn sinks in over the next six to 10 months. Conversely, less well-off couples who want to separate or divorce, are finding they are unable to do so because of the extra expense involved in maintaining separate lives. While the reasons for marriage breakdown inevitably vary, several solicitors working in this area have confirmed to the Sunday Independent that the current economic situation is impinging, in various ways, on couples who have decided to split. As the economy worsens over the months and years ahead, there will almost certainly be sign...

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...