Daft Property - Irish Property News

FIRST, some good news. The fall in house prices might be accelerating, but vacancy rates in Dublin are falling. Estate agents Savills have published figures claiming that the number of unoccupied houses in the capital had fallen from 11,000 in March 2010 to just 5,400. According to Savills, people who are unable to sell their houses are successfully renting them instead. The Savills' figures support the findings of last April's census which showed that the proportion of vacant houses in Dublin and the surrounding counties, at 10pc or less, is much lower than elsewhere in the country -- for example over 30pc in Co Leitrim. Despite this chink of positive news, it's back to business as usual for our stricken property market. The latest house-price figures from the CSO weren't bad, they were catastrophic. After a few months during which it seemed as if the worst might be over, house prices plunged by 1.6pc in August and by 13.9pc over the past 12 month. The situ

Coalition alarm at Nama property scheme... THERE IS concern within the Government that plans by the National Asset Management Agency to encourage the purchase of thousands of residential properties could artificially inflate the property market. The agency wants to introduce a scheme where it would waive 20 per cent of the purchase price of a home on its books if values were to fall further over the next five years. Nama has suggested the scheme could eventually apply to 5,000 houses and apartments. However, internal briefing material reveals fears within the Department of the Environment that the move would artificially inflate the market before it has hit bottom. It could also prevent homebuyers from realising their homeownership aspirations by preventing prices falling further. Nama is hoping to launch its "deferred purchase" scheme on a trial basis later this year by arranging the sale of about 750 homes. The agency does not need Government approval for the

House prices take another dive bringing annual collapse to 14pc... House prices took another nosedive towards the end of the summer, official figures have revealed. The cost of residential property fell 1.6pc in August taking the total collapse over the previous 12 months to 13.9pc. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said homes have fallen in value by 43pc since the peak of the market in early 2007. Over the last four years house prices in Dublin are down 48pc and apartments 57pc, while the fall in residential property prices outside the capital is about 40pc since the bubble burst. According to Conall Mac Coille, chief economist at Davy Stockbrokers, the prices are based on very low level transactions because mortgage lending remains weak. “So falling prices reflect distressed vendors being forced to sell despite weak market conditions,” he said. “Hence residential property prices are likely to continue falling through 2011.” Report by Ed Carty - Irish Independent

Lot Type Location Reserve Price will not exceed this figure 1 Investment Flat Dublin 1 Sold €160,000 2 Leasehold Flat Dublin 4 Sold €130,000 3 Vacant Flat Blackrock €185,000 4 Vacant Flat Howth Sold €183,000 5 Vacant Flat Galway City Sold €144,000 6 Leasehold Flat Dublin 1 Sold €167,500 7 Leasehold Flat Dublin 8 Sold €92,000 8 Vacant Freehold House Clara Sold €72,000 9 Vacant Leasehold House Renvyle Sold €110,000 10 Vacant Flat Blackrock Sold After 11 Investment Freehold House Loughrea Sold €127,000 12 Vacant Freehold House Lackaghmore Sold €164,000 13 Vacant Freehold Building Fermoy Withdrawn 14 Vacant Freehold House Ballyjamesduff Sold €79,000 15 Leasehold Flat Dublin 1 Withdrawn 16 Investment Flat Dublin 8 Sold €116,000 17 Vacant Freehold Building Gorey Sold €120,000 18 Investment Freehold Building Rathgar Sold €320,000 19 Investment Freehold Building Rathgar Sold €459,000 20 Investment Flat Salthill Sold €158,000 21 Investment Freehold Building Dublin 12 Sol

Apartments and swish redbricks on offer in third mass auction. The latest sale of distressed property by Allsop Space takes place in Dublin tomorrow and interest is high... THE RESERVE prices are tantalisingly low but the line-up of property in the third Allsop/Space distressed auction tomorrow at Dublin’s Shelbourne hotel isn’t quite as stellar as for their previous sales. This time there are fewer headline-grabbing period houses on sought-after Dublin roads and more apartments and commercial buildings – at the last Allsop/Space auction in July two of the biggest sellers were a large period house on Ailesbury Road in Dublin 4 and a redbrick on Iona Road in Glasnevin, Dublin 9 . “Every auction is different but we do try to balance the types of property,” says Robert Hoban, associate director of Space, who says there are “some nice redbricks in Dublin 6” in the auction. Of the 74 lots, more than half are in Dublin, with reserves low enough to entice investors out of the woodwo

Record 70,000 now behind on mortgage payments... MORE borrowers will be pushed into arrears on their mortgage payments because of rising unemployment, a ratings agency predicted yesterday as new figures show the number in trouble surged to 68,248 in July. That figure represents an increase of 12,485 in the numbers who are behind by three months or more on their mortgage payments when compared with last April. Overall, almost 9pc of homeowners are now in arrears. Ratings agency Moody's said it expected more borrowers to be pushed into arrears as jobless numbers increase. Moody's figures tend to be more up to date that those of the Central Bank which last month said arrears had risen to 7.2pc in June, leaving 55,763 homeowners three months or more in arrears. The Moody's figures imply that 22,231 have not paid their mortgage for a year or more, calculations based on their statistics show. These homeowners are at serious risk of losing their homes, home-loan experts

Ireland 'needs 30,000 new homes per year'... Ireland will need to build over 30,000 new homes per year over the next 15 years, an economist has claimed. Marian Finnegan of property auctioneer Sherry Fitzgerald told the National Housing Conference today that Ireland’s growing population would require substantial additional housing between now and 2026. “The latest census figures show that Ireland’s population has risen to 4.58 million and it is expected to increase to 5.1 million people by 2026,” Ms Finnegan said. “Based on this population growth we can anticipate that there will be a need for an average of 30,200 new homes to be built per year over the next 15 years.” The conference, organised by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), is taking place in Dublin Castle’s Conference Centre. The comments come despite figures which show that there are more than 30,000 properties in th