Daft Property - Irish Property News

What Dublin buyers are really paying... What’s your house really worth? Secret house sale data for the first four months of the year shows that in some cases, houses in the Dublin area are selling for half what the owners wanted. And nearly 20 per cent of buyers are paying cash... DATA FROM the sale of almost 200 homes in the Dublin area seen by The Irish Times show that house prices in the capital have dropped by up to 52 per cent since 2007. The data relates to 192 sales conducted by one of the country’s leading estate agencies in the first four months of 2009. The properties represent a wide range of homes at virtually every level of the market and in most postal districts. The majority of the 192 homes sold had been on the market since 2008, with some properties on sale since 2007. Analysis of the sales show that homes at the lower end of the price scale have fared best, selling for between 5 and 20 per cent below asking prices. In a very small number of cases starter homes actual

The justice minister's declaration on national television that the budget is merely a statement of intent confirms our worst fear: they don't mean what they say. If only they'd told us before... Mystery solved. We now know why Dermot Ahern found nothing on Ray Burke when he was up every tree in north Dublin. It's because he wasn't actually looking. One day long, long ago, the taoiseach summoned him to his office and said "Dermot, I want you to carry out an exhaustive investigation to establish once and for all if Rambo's been on the take from the builders." "Righto, boss," said the future minister for justice, and off he scampered to fetch his climbing boots. But not a whiff of a brown envelope did he detect among the abundant sycamores and great oaks of Swords and Malahide. Why? Because he kept his eyes closed all the time he was looking. Well, if Humpty Dumpty was your boss, would you take his instructions literally? Even pedantic, pettifo

We've never had it so bad, ESRI warns... Recession worst since the 1930s, think-tank reveals IRELAND is suffering the worst recession of any advanced country since the 1930s, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) warns in a grim analysis of the economy. Unemployment could rise above 500,000 as national income (GNP) is forecast to fall by 14pc over the three years from 2008 to 2010. The fall in national income beats the 11pc decline in the Finnish crisis of 1990 to 1993, when the collapse of the Soviet Union suddenly deprived Finland of its main market. The ESRI believes this year will be the worst of the crisis, with income per person plunging by more than 9pc in real terms. But there will be further decline next year, with a 1.2pc fall in national income. The stark outline comes as new figures will today show that the rate of increase in unemployment has slowed, but that 384,000 people are signing on. The CSO statistics reveal that an additional 11,000 signed on the li

How our young will get through the recession... BASICS: Sewing and baking is key... THE younger generation is being urged to get back to basics and learn the long forgotten skills of sewing, baking and fending for themselves in a series of classes to be held in Dublin city. Celebrity chef Darina Allen recently said that elderly people have the know-how to cope with limited budgets, but those in younger age groups may find it difficult to survive in the recession. Helpless "People have been so focused on careers and academia that they are helpless when they lose their jobs," she said. "They don't have money and they realise they don't have skills that would help them through. "From a small budget, grandmothers were able to feed the family," she added. "They could look in the fridge and make a meal out of all sorts of little scraps . That is a skill that's lost - being able to judge it yourself when food is safe to eat and when it is not. It'

How greed is the rot at society's dying core... OPINION: A PAIR of travel-worn slippers, a brass bowl and plate, round-rimmed glasses and an old pocket watch recently fetched a whopping $1.8 million at a New York auction. The memorabilia constituted just about all the earthly possessions of Mahatma Gandhi, the man Churchill infamously described as the “naked fakir” or beggar. Coincidentally, on the anniversary of the death of Gandhi, who epitomised austerity and simplicity, Seán Quinn, Ireland’s richest man, admitted in an RTÉ interview following the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank to feeling that “we were too greedy” ... It may well be deemed a collective admission from all of us, who in varying degrees, have brought on this global recession. Topping the list will be those whose greed has subsumed the hopes and dreams of generations, to the extent where radio shows that hitherto dished up discussions on caviare and champagne are recommending snail and nettle soup as its recession fla

Does this finally mean bye-bye to Bertieland? Just because Brian Cowen et al are proclaiming the end of crony capitalism doesn't mean it's dead yet... They do things differently in Sweden. Up there, they pull together in crisis. They show a united face to the outside world when the chips are down. They are ideal candidates for a social solidarity pact. Out here on the far side of Bertieland, we don't have the stomach for such happy-clappy stuff. On Wednesday, Brian Lenihan announced details for the National Asset Management Agency, or, if you will, the bad bank. This agency will take control of the property assets in the country's main banks, thus freeing up the banks to lend money to businesses. The book value of the assets, most of which are toxic, is estimated at €80bn to €90bn. Nobody knows the real value of the assets because at the moment, as nothing is selling, there is no market in which to put a price on them. The process is designed to clean up the horrendous

Ireland's dream is over as bankers chase McJobs... In Dublin, the sushi conveyor belt has stopped turning at one of the city's swankiest Japanese restaurants. In the west of the country, a new McDonald's outlet has been inundated with job applicants, among them bankers, architects and accountants. As signs of the times go, it could hardly be more dramatic. “It's no joke, I had to do a double-take on the CVs,” Kieran McDermott, the franchisee, said. He removed a “Now Hiring” banner on the site of the fast-food restaurant after only ten days. “The jobs were advertised nowhere else.” More than 500 people applied for the 50 available jobs. From indulging the latest food fad to flipping burgers, Ireland's fall from economic grace has been dramatic . Europe's most successful economy for more than a decade - the famous Celtic Tiger - became the first of the eurozone nations to move officially into recession last autumn. Since then, the descent into a financial maelstro