Daft Property - Irish Property News

NAMA ‘won’t solve developer problems’... THE property, development and construction sectors will not be served by a functioning bank post-NAMA, unless the proposed legislation is amended to provide access to sufficient working capital for new and viable projects, the Construction Industry Federation has said. Following a meeting of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) members yesterday director general Tom Parlon outlined serious reservations they have with the whole NAMA scheme. "The entire NAMA project is predicated on the need to get liquidity flowing again to support the normal economic life of the country, protect jobs and give people a renewed sense of confidence in our collective futures. "As more details emerge, however, there is a growing sense that NAMA could have the opposite effect by essentially freezing working capital for construction employers and adding to the sense of uncertainty and paralysis that has permeated all aspects of the economy since April’s

Brian, please find the nearest exit... As Leinster House twitters about FF talks with the Greens, we've already hit rock-bottom... WE DO not mean to be hurtful but even as they agonised, held hands, rubbed worry beads and emoted, the Green debate was utterly irrelevant to the realities we face. You see, the truth of the matter is that the Republic is now in such 'a state of chassis' it almost does not matter who governs us. Central bankers, economists from stockbroking houses and the political class may dodge and weave but the ongoing pantomime of politics as it is practised in Leinster House cannot hide one fundamental truth. Ireland is at the edge of an economic ground zero-style scenario , Mr Cowen, and frankly, I do not know how you or, more importantly, the rest of us are going to get out of it. Lest you be in any way unclear as to what we mean we'll simplify it for you. The Exchequer is now as solvent as a Liam Carroll company whilst our citizens, thanks to your p

Danger lurks in the ghost estates haunting our towns and villages... Mark Twain once famously said: "Buy land, they're not making it any more." But the mantra in Ireland during the past 10 years could easily have been: "Buy land -- and build on every inch." Across the country, rash zoning decisions in small towns and villages saw housing estates spring up. Ballyforan in Co Roscommon is one village where sales of new homes have stalled, and prices have now been slashed in an attempt to lure buyers. Built in what is essentially a one-street village, the Claremont development is now offering homes as part of the rent-to-buy scheme. Costing from €650 per month, it's the "easy way to owning your dream home" according to the blurb. Another, Pairc Caislean, has hoarding up around an empty site adjacent to some already completed houses. In Roscommon, and other counties such as Cavan, Longford and Leitrim, tax incentives saw scores of developers building la

The 10 new rules for first-time buyers... 100 per cent mortgages are gone, so are long-term loans – and the easily-flipped starter home is a thing of the past... WITH HOUSE prices down by as much as 50 per cent, property has never looked as affordable – or has it? While prices may have plummeted, people’s incomes have also been slashed, due to a combination of higher taxes, pay cuts and the disappearance of discretionary income such as bonuses, while getting a mortgage has become more difficult as banks tighten up their lending practices. Nevertheless, the collapse in prices means that first-time buyers are slowly coming back to the market. But what lessons should they have learnt from the crisis? 1 ASKING PRICE NOT SALE PRICE What’s a house or an apartment actually worth these days? In the absence of official sale price data and with estate agents prevented from publishing prices (house prices are covered by the Data Protection Act) it is difficult to find out what is is really happen

The creation of a European superstate has moved a step closer, after the Irish people voted to accept the Lisbon Treaty, paving the way for a powerful new President of Europe... Frightened for their jobs, no longer confident in their ability to govern themselves, the Irish finally surrender to Europe. But at least they were allowed a vote. So, out of the smog of dishonesty that has long concealed it, we at last see the true shape of the thing that threatens us. A great grey Tower of Babel reaches up into the sky over Europe, lopsided, full of cracks and likely to collapse in the fullness of time. But unlike the mythical original, it is complete – even though its builders neither understand nor particularly like each other. The new European State finally exists and has given itself life – life of a rather Frankenstein sort, but life all the same. It no longer needs to ask the permission of its member states to act. Ireland, for instance, will no longer be able even to hold a referendum

7 Reasons Why Ireland Will Be Left Behind... IRELAND POST-RECESSION: As the first signs of economic recovery are seen in the US, Ireland faces a glut of problems that could see the country left behind while the rest of the developed world returns to fiscal prosperity. LAST JUNE when Ben Bernanke thought he spied some green shoots of recovery in the US economy, another American economist, Nouriel Roubini, referred to them as yellow weeds, while Warren Buffet claimed not to have seen anything, even though he had just had cataracts removed from his eyes. In recent weeks there is more reason for optimism in the US and most commentators would be of the view that the US economy may show some modest growth in 2010, though the unemployment rate might be slow to come down. Because America is a relatively closed economy the robust fiscal stimulus and quantitative easing were bound to pay dividends. American recessions usually don't last much longer than a year. Some recovery in the same time

Average house prices are now back at January 2004 levels - report... AVERAGE HOUSE prices in Ireland are now back at the level seen in January 2004, according to the latest ESRI/Permanent TSB house price index. Prices fell by 1.5 per cent in August, according to the data released yesterday, bringing the decline in the past year to 13 per cent. According to the survey, house prices have now been falling for two full years and are 24.4 per cent lower than at their peak in February 2007. Niall O’Grady, general manager of business strategy at Permanent TSB, said the rate of decline had been more dramatic during the summer due to the low levels of activity in the market and a lack of confidence in any recovery this year. “Recently, prices have started to fall faster in the Dublin region due to the high level of surplus stock available,” he said. House prices in Dublin have fallen by 18 per cent over the past year, compared with a 12 per cent decline for property outside the capital, the sur