Quotes of the Week

Week starting 13.10.2008

"It's a mortgage at a commercial rate, there's no incentive in it, it's there solely to address the credit crunch and it seems like there is a lot of people in that category" Junior Housing Minister Michael Finneran, on the Home Choice Loan scheme, Irish Independent, 17.10.2008

"The pullback on tracker mortgages is having a significant impact on the choice of mortgages available. This is also likely to have a significant negative impact on borrowing as lenders are likely to use standard variable rates as a significant tool to control their own costs," Frank Conway of Irish Mortgage Corporation, Irish Independent, 16.10.2008

"The increase in the rate of mortgage interest relief is a positive measure for first time buyers. In essence a first time buyer couple can reduce the cost of their monthly mortgage by up to €416 which when combined with the more competitive mortgage rates in the market is a very positive result and will enhance affordability for first time buyers in the market place." Marian Finnegan, Chief Economist, Sherry FitzGerald Group, 15.10.2008

"First time buyers are the lifeblood of the property market and this scheme should improve access to credit for those people currently finding it the most difficult to obtain finance from the normal lending sources, through absolutely no fault of their own." Paul Murgatroyd, Economist, Douglas Newman Good, on government measures to help first time buyers, 15.10.2008

"By and large, Budget 2009 reflects this way of thinking and while the measures introduced offer some relief to first-time buyers and include a long overdue cut in stamp duty on commercial property transactions, the overall impact on the property market will be minimal." Geoff Tucker, Hooke & MacDonald, 15.10.2008

"We'll have it . . . though it is no big deal. The 9 per cent rate was a negative factor and people went to extraordinary lengths to mitigate it, something which was in nobody's interests, least of all the exchequer." John Mulcahy, Managing Director of Jones Lang La Salle, on the cut in commercial stamp duty, The Irish Times, 15.10.2008

"The impact won't be immediate, but it's an important move,....What you really need though is confidence and also an acceptance amongst investors that commercial property values have fallen." Peter Stapleton, Managing Director of Lisney Estate Agents, on the cut in commercial stamp duty, Irish Independent, 15.10.2008

"It's like a bomb has gone off and it'll be six months before you know who's dead because everybody's bleeding." Banking source on Irish banks summoning a number of leading developers into meetings to discuss their debt situations, Sunday Tribune, 12.10.2008

"At the time, as he pointed out, the building industry employed a quarter of a million people and made up one-fifth of the economy. One might not want to "disrupt" it, but it was imperative to begin shrinking it." Brendan Keenan on Brian Cowen's Budget 2005 speech, Sunday Independent, 12.10.2008

"If the property markets are allowed to fall even further below their long-run equilibrium level, the worst fears about the economy's and the banking system's exposure to property will be realised." Hank Fogarty, Construction Industry Federation president, Sunday Independent, 12.10.2008

"The taxpayer is bailing out developers who overvalued their property portfolios. It is yet another example of how, like banks, developers never seem to suffer the consequences of their acts." Johanna Tuffy, Labour Party TD on the Revenue provision entitling property developers to refunds on their tax payments, Sunday Independent, 12.10.2008