Daft Property - Irish Property News

From €25,000 to €1.45m: another distressed auction... AUCTIONS: There’s interest from around the world in next’s week’s big sale DUBLIN’S Shelbourne Hotel is expected to be packed again next Thursday for the second auction of distressed properties to be offered to the highest bidders by auctioneers Allsop/Space. Most of the 87 residential and commercial properties are being sold by financial institutions and receivers. They include 59 houses and apartments, mainly in Dublin, Cork and Waterford, but also in counties ranging from Laois to Donegal. Apartments already rented have been of particular interest to many people who have checked out the online sales catalogue prepared by the Allsop/Space partnership. The site has already had more than 60,000 hits, a figure that is expected to grow to over 100,000 by next Thursday. Just over 14 per cent of the enquiries have come from Ireland but there has been almost an equal level of hits from interested parties in the UK, USA, France, A...

Is your money safe in Euros if the Greeks default? A big fat Greek default is on the cards and the Lehman's style spillover might have a dire domino effect on Ireland and the euro. People are worried about Argentina-style hyperinflation making their money worthless or a government smash and grab on their precious savings if everything falls apart. What to do to protect money is the hot topic of the hour. "This is being discussed at the board tables of business, charities, you name it," says Niamh Cahill of Irishdeposits.ie. "The deposit rate of interest has been very much relegated as the most important concern, what's important now is safety." So, if the worst came to the worst, what might happen? "It could be one of two things," says Cahill. "The Government could say 'as of tomorrow we're going to devalue all deposits and loans on the balance sheets of banks in Ireland'. Or else they could say 'we're going to de...

Ireland left to count the true cost of euro dream... An exclusionary venture that values banks ahead of ordinary people – this is not what we signed up for. JUST THREE years ago we were being bamboozled into voting for the Lisbon Treaty, the then latest stage in the creation of a wondrous European project that would consolidate peace on the continent and promote yet further wealth creation. It would also give Europe a voice in world affairs corresponding to its financial clout, give greater administrative cohesion to the decision-making processes in the union and incorporate the industries of war (defence industries) into the corporate structure of the union. The Lisbon Treaty had arisen from the refusal of the French and Dutch electorates to approve a draft European constitution. The new treaty was devised to give effect to the purpose of the draft constitution, while avoiding the tiresome ordeal of obtaining electoral approval anywhere, except Ireland. The Irish electorate, a...

Some Dublin rents among highest in EU despite decline... The relatively high rents for Dublin prime office and retail accommodation are highlighted by the latest Knight Frank summer survey of European rents and yields. Dublin's prime shopping centre rents, at €3,750 per sqm per year, are the second-most expensive of the 25 cities surveyed and surpassed only by London's West End, where rents average €5,556 per sqm. Parisian rents, at €2,000 per sqm, are little over half those in Dublin. Dublin shopping centre rents are the only ones to show declines. Keiron Diamond, director at Knight Frank Ireland, points out that many distressed tenants have secured rent reductions or other forms of deals with landlords, some of whom, however, are reluctant to publicly acknowledge rent cuts. The values of Dublin shopping centres have declined and this is also reflected in the yields, which at 7.75pc, shows the values are the fourth cheapest in Europe. Some might argue that the high...

Second-home owners have two days to pay €200 council charge or face fine... OWNERS of more than 300,000 holiday homes and residential investment properties have until Thursday to cough up €200 to their local authority or face fines. If the levy is not paid by June 30, owners risk penalties of €20 a month. The charge has raised almost €160m for local authorities nationwide since it was introduced in 2009. Last year, €66m was collected for 318,889 properties, down slightly on the 2009 figure of €68.2m on more than 322,000 properties. Those who are unable to pay the charge should contact their local authority to see if they can come to an arrangement to pay by instalments, said tax expert Cathal Maxwell of paylesstax.ie. Mr Maxwell added that there was a major squeeze being put on people with investment properties as lenders tried to force them off interest-only mortgage deals, invoking clauses in contracts to review the mortgage. This can mean monthly repayments tripling if inv...

Property auction disaster shows prices still falling... IRELAND'S first discounted property auction proved a disaster yesterday, with just two of the 63 properties on offer being sold. Only two separate plots of land sold for a total of €95,000 at the auction in a Cork hotel, despite the fact that over €10m worth of houses and properties were on offer. Those same properties were worth almost €30m just five years ago. But yesterday potential bidders felt the prices were still too high. Analysts grimly warned last night that it was proof the Irish market had still to reach rock bottom -- with potential buyers convinced that prices will fall back further. Yesterday's auction was the first to involve discounted Irish properties. These are cut-price holdings being sold by private owners or developers eager to dispose of assets. Ireland's first distressed-property auction took place in Dublin last April when €14.8m worth of deals were struck. Distressed property invol...

Rock-bottom lots top the agenda in Cork... A Cork agent is hoping to repeat the success of the Allsop/Space auction, putting 65 properties to auction tomorrow in Cork A GLUT of houses selling at half their original price in Urlingford, a convent in Tipperary and a handful of island properties off the Cork and Kerry coast are hotly tipped to draw bidders to a auction of discounted property in Cork tomorrow. The 65 properties going under the hammer at the Radisson Little Island at noon have attracted 40,000 hits to the auction website (macestateagents.ie) over the past three weeks. The auction is being run by Noel Forde and Tom McCarthy of Mac Estates and GMAC Properties of Bandon and Castletownbere. Their initial aim had been to auction Cork properties, but since they announced plans for the auction they have attracted properties from Kildare, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford, Kerry and Clare. Inundated with offers from owners eager to offload property, auctioneer Noel Forde cap...