Daft Property - Irish Property News

Traveller in eviction row owns Limerick ghost estate... THIS is the 33-unit housing estate in Co Limerick owned by one of the Irish Travellers living on the controversial and illegal Dale Farm camp in England. The substantial detatched houses, which could sell for over €400,000 each, have been under construction since 2004. Irish Travellers living on England’s largest illegal halting site at Dale Farm in Essex face eviction next week. The Traveller, who can’t be identified because he shares the same name with five other Travellers on the Dale Farm site, became the title holder of the ‘ghost’ estate in Rathkeale, Co Limerick last year. It is one of the few estates in the country where construction has continued -- albeit at a slow pace -- since the collapse of the Celtic Tiger. A prior applicant successfully lodged planning permission with the local authority for the houses in Rathkeale, where there is a large Traveller population. Work is still continuing at the housing

Number of 'ghost estates' hits 2,881... THE NUMBER of “ghost estates” has increased, figures to be published next month will show. Colm Ó Ruanaidh, senior adviser on social housing at the Department of the Environment, told the housing policy conference that the count for this year was not yet complete, but semi or unoccupied housing developments showed there had been an increase from 2,846 last year to 2,881 this year. A departmental spokesman said Mr Ó Ruanaidh was working from “raw data” that would be finalised and published next month. “The additional 35 developments constitute an increase in the number of dwellings in ghost estates from 179,230 last year to 179,900,” Mr Ó Ruanaidh said. Some 230 unfinished developments have met the criteria to benefit from a €5 million fund to address immediate safety concerns. A guidebook for residents in unfinished estates is to be published in coming weeks. Marian Finnegan, chief economist with Sherry FitzGerald, said the c

NAMA under fire for failing to help house poor people. ENVIRONMENT Minister Phil Hogan is embroiled in a row with NAMA over whether the agency is doing enough to house poor people. The minister said he was unhappy with the toxic assets agency for not selling properties under its control at a discount to his department. These could then be used to house those on council housing waiting lists. But the department was unable yesterday to identify specific areas in need of social housing where NAMA had a stockpile of suitable properties. And NAMA has no specific legal obligation to help to resolve the social housing problem. The law setting up the agency says that one of its purposes is "to contribute to the social and economic development of the State". But there is no mention about handing over specific numbers of properties for social housing. So far just 58 apartments in the Beacon South Quarter, Sandyford, which had been in NAMA, have been purchased by a volun

PLANNING AND THE RING OF KERRY: YOU CAN almost hear Jackie Healy-Rae saying it – “the plannin’ is terrible round here”... What some Kerry people mean by this, of course, is not that the landscape has been chewed up by haphazard housing, but that it can be damned difficult to get permission to build in certain areas. The stark statistics do not bear this out. Altogether, there are at least 34,000 one-off houses in the countryside, accounting for more than half of Kerry’s housing stock or seven per kilometre of public road. That’s an awful lot of houses strewn around the landscape of a county that was recently voted the “most scenic” in Ireland. Kerry’s senior planner Paul Stack has been outspoken about the “incredible damage” done by the proliferation of housing. After an absence of 14 years, he “couldn’t believe what I came back to, planning went out of control”. “It’s like the Celtic Tiger – we knew we were wrong and we kept going,” he told councillors in July. “Eighty per cen

Mortgage misery index shows commuters' pain... DURING the Celtic Tiger era, the most high-profile example of how the country was finally wealthy was the booming numbers who constituted Ireland's 'rich list'. However, the new realities of post-boom Ireland are epitomised by a county-by-country breakdown of the numbers receiving Mortgage Interest Relief Supplement (MIRS), that has just been compiled by the Department of Social Protection. MIRS is a scheme whereby the Department of Social Protection pays the interest part of a mortgage when householders become unemployed and can no longer meet their payments. Such payments are supposed to be short term -- although in practice this is no longer the case -- and are meant only to cover the interest element of the mortgage. After a modest start to the scheme, the numbers availing of it -- and therefore its cost -- have almost quadrupled. Unsurprisingly, the department's figures indicate that the two counties wi

Beat the recession: get two houses for price of one... THERE was a time when you had to queue around the block to ensure you could buy a house in a new housing estate. But now you can 'Buy One and Get One Free'. An estate agent yesterday launched the novel offer on houses in Co Donegal -- with a price tag for both of €100,000. Two sets of properties went on the market in Letterkenny and Milford at that price with a third set of semi-detached homes being offered for €120,000. The house at No 28 Coopers Crest in Milford is a three-bedroom semi-detached home with a fitted kitchen, fireplace and a garden. And anyone prepared to fork out €100,000 for the home will get No 29 absolutely free. The same deal is on offer for four-bedroom semis No 41 and No 42 Gleann Rua in Letterkenny, with No 37 and No 38 slightly more expensive at €120,000. Unlike other bargain sales of properties around the country in recent times, this sale comes with a good news story. Estate agent

The Nama factor is about to be tested this Saturday with the launch of 13 apartments in Belarmine, Stepaside on Dublin’s southside. This will be the first of Castlethorn Construction’s housing developments to be sold by Nama and the first significant Nama disposal of new homes on Dublin’s southside. The new homes are in Belarmine Hall (below) and Belarmine Plaza. Sherry FitzGerald has been appointed the selling agent and is quoting minimum reserves from €119,950 for the four one-bed apartments, reserves from €159,950 for a pair of three-bed apartments and from €189,950 for six three-bed units. By “minimum reserve” they mean don’t bother trying to haggle the prices downwards at the launch. About 30 of the units were sold in early 2009 when prices for two beds were €200,000-€250,000. The apartments are fully finished with appliances and BER certs and come with a designated parking space per apartment. Ivan Gaine of Sherry FitzGerald says the launch will be a good test of the mark