Quotes of the Week

Week starting 03.11.2008

Chartered Land is "committed to delivering this scheme which will create a vibrant new urban quarter on O'Connell Street and reinstate it as the city's premier thoroughfare". Dominic Deeny, chief executive of Chartered Land, The Irish Times, 05.11.2008

"With regards to rental values, we've seen only a marginal decline in office rents. They have been marginal because the risk of oversupply has been muted by a number of office developments being put on hold and also by an intensification of competition for city centre office space. Although Dublin vacancy has gone up overall, in the city centre the vacancy rate has fallen to nine per cent. Over 80pc of outstanding requirements for office accommodation are located in the city centre districts." Patrick Koucheravy, CB Richard Ellis, Irish Independent , 05.11.2008

“The members also voted to reduce the size of the Council from twenty eight to twelve members. This should benefit policy formation and help strengthen IAVI’s leadership position in the property industry. The benefits I believe with a smaller, tighter organisation are greater flexibility and a greater ability to react in terms of creating initiatives for the sector.” Derry Gray from BDO Simpson Xavier regarding IAVI restructuring, 05.11.2008

"I reckon the majority of first-time buyers who bought into the market over the last three years are in negative equity." Jim Power, Chief Economist with Friends First, Irish Independent, 03.11.2008

"We have been here before, and as sure as night follows day, we will be here again. The difference this time around is that the credit crunch has exacerbated the speed and depth of decline, and transactional activity cannot improve until such time as liquidity improves - something that is out of our hands and a problem to which there is no quick-fix solution." Marie Hunt, Director of Research at CBRE, Sunday Business Post, 02.11.2008

"We’ve had very few actual redundancies - what we have done is moved people from new homes into the valuation areas. There’s no doubt we’ve moved people around. But in terms of numbers, where we’ve been forced to let people go, there’s been very few." Angus Potterton, Managing Director of Savills, Sunday Business Post, 02.11.2008

"It has to be encouraging. But the issue for the housing market is supply. There is too much supply." Frank O'Dwyer, Irish Association of Investment Managers on the prospects for big mortgage rate cuts, Sunday Tribune, 02.11.2008

"Mortgage finance has really tightened for investors. Banks are more willing to lend to first-time buyers, up to 92pc of the price. But they are more strict about income and the type of income involved -- whether it includes things like bonuses and commissions." Geoff Tucker, Economist at Hooke & MacDonald, Irish Independent, 01.11.2008