Daft Property - Irish Property News

European journalists deliver the last rites to Celtic Tiger... EUROPEAN DIARY : European media outlets have been scathing in their criticism of a ‘Wild West’ financial culture ... THE CRISIS gripping the Irish economy is clearly the big news at home this week. But it is also hard to avoid the topic in Brussels, where journalists and diplomats are busy reading the last rites to the Celtic Tiger and rethinking their past praise for the Irish economic miracle. In the European Commission press room, colleagues from other EU states tend to broach the subject in one of two ways. Over a cup of coffee some ask concerned questions about what went wrong, who is to blame and what impact it will have on a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Others invoke gallows humour, telling the in-joke: “What’s the difference between Iceland and Ireland? Answer: One letter and about six months.” The BBC’s daily current affairs programme Europe Today repeated this – by now hackneyed – joke on air on Friday

Well-heeled south Dublin suburbs, commuter enclaves and student cities have all been devastated by the property price slump. But some have been hit worse than others and the pace of the fall in prices is picking up in some counties and cities. Nick Webb reveals where prices are falling fastest ... 1. Galway City 12.2 per cent drop at end of 2008 HOUSE prices in Galway City are falling faster than anywhere else in the Republic, according to new research. In the final quarter of 2008, house prices fell by a staggering 12.2 per cent. That means that between October to Christmas, the average house price in Galway shed €40,000, falling to just over €303,000 or by close to €450 per day. Galway city house prices have fallen by 21.1 per cent since the height of the property madness in mid-2006, according to Daft findings. The price haemorrhage was slower in Galway county, although it was still the seventh fastest falling market in the last quarter, with prices tumbling 7.2 per cent. Last week&

RTE's biting satire ruffles feathers of Cowen circle ...Supporters unhappy at Cabinet portrayal as boozing buffoons: RTE has become embroiled in a potential controversy, reminiscent of the infamous Scrap Saturday furore, following the broadcast last week of a series of biting satirical sketches which have already ruffled feathers in political circles. Nob Nation, a topical comedy series broadcast each day on the Gerry Ryan Show on 2FM, last week portrayed some members of the Cabinet, including Taoiseach Brian Cowen, as hard-drinking buffoons, and made several joking references to "The Drinks Cabinet" . A flood of complaints was subsequently fielded by the programme, primarily in relation to Nob Nation's portrayal of Mr Cowen, but also several other members of Cabinet, including the Finance Minister Brian Lenihan. Mr Cowen was on government business in Japan last week and, therefore, did not hear the series. But supporters in Co Offaly are understood to have been upset

With an oversupply of properties and tumbling prices, renting seems the way to go... IN THE Chinese calendar, 2009 is the year of the ox, but in Ireland it looks set to be the year of the renter. Economists are predicting that rents will drop by at least 10 per cent in the year ahead, compounding similar falls in 2008. Tenants are waking up to the fact that it’s a buyers’ market and negotiating lower rents and better conditions (see panel). In many cases, they are renting properties that they could never afford to buy. Large, luxurious homes are coming on to the rental market for the first time. Meanwhile, new standards are coming into force next month which will improve the quality of existing rental accommodation. Forget about grotty bedsits, coin-operated electricity meters and rent hikes – tenant power is in the ascendant. The downward pressure on rents has been caused primarily by a glut of properties flooding the market. Developers, buy-to-let investors and those trading up who f

Ireland's Property Market: A Fallen Star? Ronan Lyons, Daft's in-house economist, commenting on the latest Daft research on the Irish property market... When we look back at 2008 in a few years' time, I think it's fair to say we will regard it as the annus horribilis for Ireland's property market. In late 2006, we issued a report which was the first to spot a slowdown in the property market. At the time, it was our view - unpopular though it was - that rising interest rates and high levels of supply would lead to a levelling off in house prices. This turns out to only have been the start of the story. Bursting onto the world stage at the end of the 1990s, Ireland was heralded as an economic phenomenon and rapidly became a global superstar and poster-child for economic development. But recently it looks like it's all just falling apart. Nowhere is this more evident than in Ireland's housing market - until recently the engine of Ireland's economic growth.

Ireland plans drastic cuts to prevent debt crisis... Ireland is to demand pay cuts for civil servants and public employees to prevent the budget deficit soaring to 12pc of gross domestic product by next year – becoming the first country in the eurozone to resort to 1930s-style wage deflation to claw back competitiveness. "We will take whatever decisions are necessary," said premier Brian Cowen. The Taoiseach yesterday denied reports that he invoked the spectre of the International Monetary Fund to terrify the trade unions into submission. But the threat – uttered or not – has been picked up nevertheless by labour leaders. "The IMF's normal prescription in such situations involves mass dismissals and pay cuts, along with cuts in pensions," said Dan Murphy, head of the public service union, who accepts the need for draconian retrenchment. The budget deficit will soar to 9.6pc of GDP this year as property tax revenues collapse. It is so far above the EU's Maast

Warning that house prices may fall by 80%... HOUSING MARKET: IRELAND WILL see more demolition than construction of houses over the next decade, as the economy struggles to recover from the collapse of the housing market and the emergence of “zombie” banks , UCD economist Morgan Kelly told the conference. In a presentation that drew several collective intakes of breath, Mr Kelly predicted that house prices would fall by 80 per cent from peak to trough in real terms. “Construction, but not demolition, of residential and commercial property will fall to zero for the foreseeable future,” he said. Low levels of education among those employed in construction – where worker numbers peaked at about 280,000 – meant retraining would not be straightforward. Recovery will be slow: “It has taken us 10 years to get into this situation – it will in all likelihood take us 10 years to get out of it.” Mr Kelly said he had been hailed as being extremely prescient as a result of his warnings in relation t