Daft Property - Irish Property News

The Irish economy is set to repeat its old mistake of excess mortgage-lending... The run-up to Christmas is always a good time for burying bad news and this year was no different. On the Friday before Christmas, Bank of Ireland announced it was going to have to put more money aside to absorb possible losses on Irish residential mortgages. Just how much more money was not very clear but it would appear to run into several hundred million euro. The statement was extremely technical and did not actually talk about losses or defaults. But the point is clear. The bank had already put aside some money to absorb losses that might occur as a result of people not being able to pay their mortgages. It now seems that more people than expected are going to default and the bank has had to put some extra money aside. It is as timely a reminder as you could hope for that the Irish banks are still broken and still fighting their way through a mountain of problem mortgages as a result of their rec...

The year saw a shift from D4 to D6 while the country market slowed on the previous year... DUBLIN... Dublin 6 dominated top-end sales this year and, in particular, Dartry. Whereas in other years coastal south Co Dublin and Shrewsbury and Ailesbury Roads have dominated, Dublin 6 and the area around Temple Road have become hot property. Top of the list was the purchase in May of Alston at 19 Temple Road for a whopping €10.225 million when former Paddy Power boss Patrick Kennedy traded up from his home on nearby Palmerston Road. In a quiet off-market deal, the Victorian property, on one acre, was sold by barrister Vincent Foley and his wife, Helen, who have lived there since the late 1980s. Around the corner at 5 Temple Gardens, €6.5 million exchanged hands when the detached redbrick house on a third of an acre owned by the late barrister and former attorney general, Rory Brady, sold in another off-market deal. Not long after Subiaco at 1 Temple Gardens sold for €5.85 million shortly a...

Looser Central Bank rules, generous Help to Buy grants for first-time buyers - but trader uppers are being left out in the cold... They paid too much for their home during the boom; their wages are stagnant; their mortgage is still underwater; they may have a cheap tracker but have ended up renting their own home and leasing another family friendly property at a hefty rent themselves. They’re the negative equity generation and now they want to trade up – but any help form the Government is going towards first-time buyers and not them. Why? It’s a question many people of a certain age may be asking themselves following last month’s revisions to the Central Bank’s mortgage rules. For first-time buyers, the requirement to have a deposit of just 10 per cent – or as low as 5 per cent on a new build thanks to the help-to-buy scheme – means getting the funds together to buy a first property, particularly in Dublin, has become a good deal easier. But what about second-time buyers looking to...

It is hard to know whether the threat by landlords to withdraw from State rental schemes and pass on a raft of charges to tenants is posturing, or a reality the Government will have to face. Housing Minister Simon Coveney's rent control measures outlined this week, which are expected to become law before Christmas, have certainly raised the hackles of the Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA), which has 5,000 members across the State. It said some members have threatened to withdraw from State-sponsored rental schemes, despite in many cases signing legally binding leases with local authorities. It has also proposed charging a payment to collect keys, imposing service charges and registration fees, obliging tenants to pay for parking and documents, and even asking tenants to contribute towards the Local Property Tax - which the Revenue Commissioners have said must be paid by owners, and not those renting. The IPOA's claims that its members are "hard-pressed" and ...

Rising house prices lift 45,000 out of negative equity... Rising property prices, particularly in Dublin, are lifting thousands of households out of negative equity, according to new research. A study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) calculated that recovery in house prices last year alone reduced the number of mortgage loans in negative equity by 15 per cent. Based on mortgage data obtained from the Department of the Environment and theIrish Banking Federation, the institute estimated that the total number of mortgage loans in negative equity peaked at 314,000 in late 2012. Coalition can meet deficit target with adjustment of only €200m, says Ibec Property price growth last year – which saw values rise by nearly 16 per cent in Dublin and 6 per cent nationally – reduced this number by approximately 45,000. At this rate, the ESRI is predicting the number of households in negative equity will have fallen by 43 per cent by the end of the year from its...

‘Hope to be bankrupt for Christmas’: Irish mortgage debtors see insolvency as way out... With one in five mortgage payments being overdue in Ireland and families across the country having their homes repossessed, some of the debtors are hoping for bankruptcy to do away with their endless fear of losing their properties. Julia Godsill, a Dubliner, can hardly hold back her tears, when retelling her not uncommon mortgage saga to RT’s Tesa Arcilla. When she bought her house the Irish economy was still the “Celtic Tiger” enjoying its boom time. After the credit crunch of 2008, Julia could only watch as her mortgage became too high for her to be able to pay, while the value of her house itself went down. “I ended up with a cash offer for 500,000. This was in 2011. And I was delighted. But the banks refused to accept the offer because the mortgage was 800,000 climbing with arrears. They preferred to bring me to court, and repossess the house instead.” The Central Bank of Ireland figu...

A Souvineer  of the Irish Property Bubble... Not all of Ireland’s ghost estates are half built and ugly - some have a certain charm...like this scheme in rural Waterford. No attention to detail was spared by developer Pat McCoy whan he built the estate  in the village of Stradbally, Co Waterford.  Tucked away at the top of a hill leading up from the village green are 15 chocolate-box thatched cottages.  Enjoy  this video of Ireland's prettiest Ghost Estate ! See the "Pretty Ghost Estate" story  ! (Thanks to David for sharing this video)