Quote of the Week 08/05

"Average national house prices fell by a further 0.7% in … This follows a similar reductions [0.8%] in February and [0.7%] in January.” – Permanent TSB/ESRI House Price Index

‘‘I am always amazed by the number of reports produced by the industry. They are meaningless, as a valuer’s assessment is obviously subjective. The basic ingredient for any index is that it is based on the selling price.” - Alan Ahearn, economist with NUI Galway.

"It's a total disgrace that he has allowed this to come about but also that he has totally backed away from closing the loophole, while he made such a mess of the residential stamp duty" – Joan Bruton, Labour finance spokeswoman.

"My predecessor didn’t ‘dither’ on stamp duty, he reformed stamp duty in the last budget and put in place an arrangement which in my view is entirely adequate in relation to stamp duty." - Mr Brian Lenihan TD, Minister for Finance.

“Our decision to withdraw is based on a combination of the uncertain economic market conditions and the planning risks associated with a project of that nature.” - Colm Whooley, finance director at Sisk.

‘‘We are in an economic environment where there are new realities. Banks are no longer comfortable with the gearing levels of around 80 per cent that were almost taken for granted on good quality projects, this time last year. In reality, they are moving down to between 50 and 70 per cent.” - Paul Fagan, head of consultancy and investment services, Farrelly & Mitchell.

“We forecast a 12% drop in house prices in Ireland this year” – Davy Stockbrokers

“The poor results bring to a close 23 straight quarters of positive performance [in the commercial property market], an unprecedented reversal that has dragged the 12 months total to the end of March to 4.9 per cent.” – The Irish Times.

“Every country in the world has a property tax and Ireland is no different from every other country in the world. We do it through a transactions tax called stamp duty but the idea that you can abolish all property taxes to stimulate this particular sector is misguided and I think we’re going to have to face up to that.” – Mr Brian Lenihan TD, Minister for Finance.