Daft Property - Irish Property News

New 21st-Century Monopoly edition missed a few tricks... Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect €200. We've all had the sinking feeling of picking up a card and reading those words. These days, however, it's also a fair summary of what most of the country would like to say to the politicians, bankers and developers who've landed us in such a mess. Radical The Irish edition of Monopoly has just been given a radical makeover for the 21st century -- but even so, it's hard not to feel that they've missed a few tricks. When Monopoly first appeared in shops exactly 75 years ago, America was in the middle of the Great Depression. Charles Darrow, the man who launched it, had lost his job in the Wall Street Crash and thought that people might enjoy the escapism of a game that allowed people to become property tycoons. He was as astonished as anyone else when it made him a real-life millionaire. In modern Ireland, things are a little bit different. We still like

Problems at 'ghost estates' identified... So-called “ghost” housing estates are posing serious health and environmental dangers through problems such as incomplete sewerage systems, water contamination, unfinished roads and open manholes, a study has found. The issues have been identified in a pilot study in Co Laois, ordered by the Department of the Environment, on the likely effects of the sudden end to the building boom, particularly in rural areas. The study, which assessed housing developments that were granted planning permission in the county in the last five years, found a quarter of them had health and safety problems. It also emerged that local authority requirements for builders’ bonds are in many cases seriously inadequate. The bonds are supposed to be taken out to ensure estates are completed. In some cases the requirements appear to have been ignored completely. Minister of State with responsibility for planning Ciarán Cuffe said it was expected that most of the u

The taxpayer saved the banks, so now they turn the screw on mortgage rates... When the European Central Bank this week kept its key interest rate at one per cent, worried mortgage holders who are struggling to meet their repayments breathed a collective sigh of relief across euro land. Except in Ireland, that is. In Fair Eire, allegedly the land of a thousand welcomes, mortgage interest rates are actually going up. Economists say the main message from the ECB monthly press conference last Thursday was that the first hike in official rates is a relatively comfortable amount of time away -- probably no earlier than late 2011. That gives most people space to put bread on the table, squirrel away some extra cash and pay off their credit cards. Not so here, however, where public sector workers have seen their wages slashed and, as unemployment rises in the private sector, the public has watched helplessly as billions of euro of taxpayers' money has been used to prop up the banks. Billio

Irish emigration soars as Celtic Tiger’s cubs hunt for jobs... The number of people leaving the Republic has swelled far beyond those of every other country in the European Union, says research. An estimated 40,000 people emigrated last year, according to the EU's statistics office, Eurostat, a rate almost twice as high as that of Lithuania, the next most affected country. It is expected the flow may worsen as the Republic faces years of severe financial difficulties. A research institute has warned that 200,000 people, in a country of 4.5 million, may be forced to emigrate by 2015 if job opportunities do not improve. The unprecedented prosperity of the so-called Celtic Tiger years seemed to have consigned emigration to the history books. Its reappearance is regarded with dismay. Some of those leaving are thought to be immigrants who came to Ireland in large numbers from mainland Europe over the last decade and who, unable to find jobs, are returning home. But a large proportion a

The Republic's budget targets remain on track despite the country being €10bn in the red, the Government said last night. Latest exchequer figures show €17.2bn taxes were collected in the first seven months of the year - 1.4% or €247m below target. Separate figures revealed the Irish economy shrunk 7.6% last year. Fine Gael claimed the country had suffered the longest and deepest recession of any advanced economy in the world. Richard Bruton, enterprise spokesman, said the rate of economic decline was five times worse than the average fall suffered by advanced countries. "Despite all the evidence and the conclusions of the recent banking reports, some Government ministers continue to pretend that Ireland's problems were caused by outside forces, when the truth is that Ireland and its people have been the victims of catastrophic economic mismanagement," Mr Bruton said. The exchequer deficit at the end of July was €10.2bn, down from the €16.4bn recorded at the same per

THE Government has been accused of presiding over a graduate "brain drain". Unemployment among graduates has almost trebled in the past two years, and student leaders say more and more college leavers are being forced to quit the country. Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures reveal there were 68,600 unemployed graduates in March, compared with 25,400 at the same time in 2008. The jobs problem is greater for males, who account for 60pc of out-of-work graduates, up from 56pc two years ago. The Economic and Social Research Institute recently warned that 200,000 people may be forced to emigrate between now and 2015 if unemployment is not addressed. And the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) says many of these will be highly skilled graduates. USI president Gary Redmond said it was ironic the Jeanie Johnston famine ship was docked in Dublin's IFSC, the area that was once the heart of Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy. USI members are planning a protest at the ship today to

Junkies and empty spaces litter streets where a dream died... The ill-fated Northern Quarter would have transformed our capital city: A mid-afternoon stroll around the place that would have been known as the Northern Quarter shows, emerging from the cracks, what we have come to expect in these days of broken dreams. There are junkies everywhere, in the numerous alleyways and on street corners, cravenly going about their business; there are the usual scatterings of beggars too, wrapped up quietly within themselves. In unequal measure, then, it is an uneasy landscape, both edgy and pathetic. People walk past, eyes in the distance, without taking notice -- or so it seems -- hurrying for trains, cars, buses, and bicycles, any mode at all out of the city and home. I was once familiar, indeed, with this area, before moving office in 2004, shortly after the arrival of the Luas -- a shining symbol of the new and of renewal, if ever there was one, at a time of optimism not that long ago. These