Daft Property - Irish Property News

Has the property market truly bottomed out? And not only that, but showing some signs of life? Well yes and no. Very encouraging signs are there for all to see. The newspaper property supplements are less anaemic and signs proclaiming "Sold" which have been as rare as hens' teeth are suddenly being seen in some of the better Dublin enclaves. Agricultural land is making record prices. And there are tentative signs that if potential buyers can survive a searching examination of their finances -- now so intimate that it would shame a proctologist -- there are mortgages being approved. Even property auctions, a leit-motif of the halcyon days of the boom, are making a re-appearance after a five-year absence. While there are huge tracts of the country where the residential property market is still on life support there are at least some signs elsewhere that suggest the patient is out of intensive care. Recovery has started in Dublin, not all of the capital, but in the areas...

New blow for house price hopes as market set to fall 60pc from 2007 peak... HOPES of property prices settling down have received a new blow, with a prediction that values will plunge by 60pc from the peak. Prices have already halved, but now credit ratings agency Fitch said they are set to keep falling. A fall of 60pc from 2007 would mean the average house price falling to €125,600 from €314,000 at the peak. There had been some optimism in the last few weeks that prices could be reaching a floor, particularly in Dublin. But the latest official figures show that property prices fell in June, dashing hopes that the market was close to stabilising. The fall of 1.1pc in prices in June recorded by the Central Statistics Office reversed a rise that was recorded in the previous month. Prices have halved from the peak of the market almost five years ago. The CSO figures indicate that the average home is now priced at €156,000, having collapsed to half of its value since the boom that came a...

Next big hot potato is property tax of up to €1,000... There's little hope of a property tax being fair and equitable on the already squeezed middle classes, says Daniel McConnell. Can you afford to pay €1,000 a year in a property tax? Well, according to the man charged with designing such a tax, that is what we will, on average, all pay once it is introduced. Don Thornhill, a career civil servant who describes himself now as a consultant "who advises on strategy and policy to a number of leading Irish organisations" has recently presented his report to Minister Phil Hogan recommending how such a property tax should work. Politically toxic and highly unpopular, the lack of enthusiasm of either Fine Gael or Labour to discuss the matter is a clear sign of the trepidation that surrounds the idea of lumping the extra burden on the shoulders of the Irish taxpayer, but in particular the "squeezed middle classes". Phil Hogan's department is saying nothing othe...

Property price register pushed out until late September... THE LONG-AWAITED property price register, detailing the sale price of residential properties here, looks like it’s now going to miss its expected summer deadline. Despite being eagerly anticipated by estate agents, homeowners and buyers, and a recent call from the head of Nama to develop a commercial equivalent, the property price register has yet to materialise. So why the delay? The property price database first made the headlines in early 2010 and since then there has been much talk but little action. In December of last year, the register was provided for by legislation, and at the time, it was understood that the register would appear six months later. However, according to Tom Lynch, chief executive of the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA), the register was never going to be ready for June, despite this date being widely reported at the time. “I never said it was June,” he says, adding that the register was s...

Russians ride in to rescue Irish apartments in Bulgaria... UP TO 50 Irish-owned apartments in Bulgaria have been bought by Russian property prospectors in the first six months of this year, a Dublin-based property business has said. An estimated 30,000 Irish citizens currently sit on more than €1bn of bad property investments in Bulgaria. Dylan Cullen, head of Appreciating Assets, said growing demand from the former Soviet country for the Bulgarian resorts means Irish people are finally able to offload their unwanted properties. Since the peak of the Bulgarian property-buying frenzy, from 2005 to 2008, Black Sea prices have fallen by between 35pc and 45pc, depending on location. But the Russians and Ukrainians, the two biggest buyer groups, have formed a view that this market looks to be near the bottom. Buyers are back looking at the Black Sea for holiday homes. "The Russians are becoming wealthier and as their middle class expands they want holiday homes," said Mr Cullen. ...

State bad loans agency NAMA has decided for the first time to demolish a derelict apartment block it owns. The apartment block -- in the Gleann Riada estate on the outskirts of Longford town -- comprises 12 unsold units that are in disrepair. It is understood another half a dozen NAMA-controlled ghost estates will be knocked down before the end of the year as the loans agency returns half-built houses and apartments to green areas. NAMA controls about 280 unfinished developments, some 10pc of the total. Local Fine Gael councillor Peggy Nolan said the Gleann Riada development was "Longford's Priory Hall", referring to the apartment complex in north Dublin that had to be evacuated last year due to shoddy building work. Residents of the Longford estate have staged a long campaign to have their development properly completed. The unoccupied apartment block at the entrance to the development has also been vandalised. There are 90 houses on the estate on Strokestown Road that ...

Number of mortgages in arrears hits new peak of 14pc... ONE in seven mortgage holders is now in arrears, according to calculations by a leading ratings agency. Large numbers of these homeowners are understood to be avoiding getting into talks with their banks on restructuring their mortgages. Moody's also said house prices would fall another 20pc. The rating agency said its calculations show 14pc of residential mortgage holders are now in arrears, which works out at 107,000 households. This is a new peak, it said. Figures released by the Central Bank last month showed 10.2pc of mortgage holders were three months or more behind on their payments. "The steep decline in house prices since 2007 has placed the majority of borrowers deep into negative equity," it said. "Irish house prices have already fallen by 49.9pc between September 2007 and April 2012, and Moody's expects that house prices will fall a further 20pc from today's levels." Central Bank figu...