Daft Property - Irish Property News

Year of the great smash and grab raid -- by the banks... IF THERE is one thing you can bank on, it is that 2010 will go down as the year of the great bank robbery. Usually the raiders take money from the bank. But in the case of this bank job, the ones who have had their cash torn away from them in an audacious smash and grab raid are consumers. Banking was once a byword for trust, but today's Irish bankers are a sorry lot. They now have their hands out, begging for a bail-out. Unfortunately, we have no choice other than to stump up and fund their losses from lunatic loans that were advanced with abandon to developers and others during the boom. We are set to learn today exactly how many billions of euro will be required to be pumped into the banks in order to bring them back to health. But it is almost certain that the State will end up as the majority owner of AIB and Irish Nationwide, along with significant stakes in Bank of Ireland and EBS Building Society. And these banks and

Our economy has 'fallen off a cliff'... Ireland's economy has "fallen off a cliff" and is in the grip of the worst recession in its history as new figures reveal it has shrunk by almost 25 per cent from its peak. A loss of nearly one-quarter of the country's domestic trade in such a short period of time is seen as a catastrophe. The domestic economy, the day-to-day business of trading, has been decimated and business leaders have called on Finance Minister Brian Lenihan to follow the lead of the British, who put small businesses at the heart of their economic recovery plan. According to the new figures, since the peak of Ireland's economic wealth creation in the first quarter of 2007, Ireland's economy has reduced by a frightening 24.27 per cent, far higher than previously thought. While the main political agenda was last week dominated by Taoiseach Brian Cowen's reshuffle, focus will next week return to the state of the country's finances, wit

Ireland needs a new publicly owned bank modelled on a lender that helped rebuild Germany after the Second World War, it was claimed today. Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said a state bank was necessary to inject much-needed cash into struggling smaller firms and business start-ups. A Strategic Investment Bank - based on Germany's KfW bank, which was set up under the post-war Marshall Plan to rebuild a devastated Europe - would also raise money for public projects, he claimed. "Businesses need money to start up and keep going," he said. "At the moment and certainly for the foreseeable future there does not appear to be any prospect that the existing banking system is going to provide that finance." Mr Gilmore said the proposed bank would be set up with €2bn taken from the national pension fund, with another €18bn raised from international money markets. Under the Labour plan, it would have a small number of branches and, while state-owned, would be run independently

House prices 'set for further 10pc fall' says leading economist... House prices will fall by another 10pc before the market hits rock bottom next year, a leading economist predicted today. Jim Power, chief economist of Friends First, believes while the recession is likely to end around the middle of this year, consumer confidence and spending will continue to be undermined by wage cuts, an uncertain labour market and further reductions in state spending. The finance house revealed six out of 10 consumers are not confident in the Government's ability to revive the economy, with a third backing a Fine Gael/Labour coalition to do the job. Mr Power said it was difficult to be convinced the economic situation will improve considerably in the near future. "The Irish economy is going through an extremely difficult adjustment and the situation remains precarious. It is way too early to sound the all clear," he warned. "A fundamental reform of taxation and spending is

29 property suicides leave State unmoved... Families torn apart by cash crisis Twenty-nine deaths by suicide can be directly linked to the turmoil in the construction and property sector but dozens more deaths among small investors, homeowners and construction industry workers linked to financial despair have gone unreported. David Mellon, of the Irish Property Council believes the human misery inflicted by the collapse in the property and construction industry is incalculable and the Government is doing nothing to protect the sanctity of the family home. He predicted that by the time the economy recovers, hundreds will have taken their own lives because they have been plunged into a financial abyss from which they can see no way out. "We are talking about people who invested in property, people who earned their livelihood from it in many forms; builders, plasterers, plumbers, developers and large and small investors. "They are now facing financial disaster, bankruptcy and de

EU Commission throws cold water on hopes worst of budget crisis over... THE EU Commission yesterday took on the role of the man who blew out the light at the end of the tunnel. Tuesday was a good day in terms of the public finances. The Government, through the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), managed to borrow €1bn at the lowest interest rates since December 2008, when compared with equivalent German rates. The head of the NTMA suggested the gap between Irish and German interest rates on government debt could be less than 1pc by the end of the year. Any sane person not still living in bubble land would regard that as an eminently reasonable "spread", given the differences between the two economies. But the commission threw a large bucket of cold water on any flickering hopes that the worst of the budget crisis was over. In its formal report on the public finances of 14 EU states, it warned that the tough Irish budgetary plans, over which so much anger and anguish h

"For the love of God, and his blessed disciple St Patrick, displace me from this wretched isle"... Mbwana minister! All hail from the Emerald Isle, on this, its patron saint's feast day! It is my 10th year here! Any chance of granting me the posting that I sought after my very first week? To somewhere civilised, like North Korea, or Burma, or dear old Liberia? I liked Liberia. Yes, they sometimes kill children there, but that is in war: the highest men in the land raped children at a time of peace in this country, and got away with it. Big men, Mbwana. Important men, with purple hats, and their crimes were covered up by other men with purple hats. The health ministry here is pioneering new long thin hospital wards called "corridors". There is no money for the patients, because it is all being spent on the staff. Thousands of people are X-rayed here, and then no one bothers to read the X-rays, ho ho ho. In a county called Kerry, they are building a new hospital i