Quotes of the Week

"As you know, it is very difficult out there, particularly in this area, and having explored other options to keep the business going in its current guise, we have no choice now but to carry out the rationalisation." – Pat Gunne, Gunne New Homes.

"Turnaround times are much slower than they were, there is no doubt about it, and obviously, with the bigger homes, there is a smaller number of people able to buy them, so the slowdown is making it tougher. But, if serious offers come in that are in the ball park, we're not saying 'no'," - Robert Hoban, Savills Hamilton Osborne King.

"Our job in government is to continue to invest in projects that will enhance our competitiveness; to implement sustainable, sensible fiscal policies and to ensure that we retain a flexible environment. If we follow this course of action, the economy will be in a position to bounce back when the temporary negative factors fade." - Brian Lenihan, Minister for Finance.

"Everyone knows the downturn in the public finances is because government blew the finances from the boom which everybody knew would be temporary." – Dr Alan Barrett, Senior ESRI researcher.

“The combination of higher customer mortgage rates and weaker confidence in the economy is increasing uncertainty about the immediate future of the property market. This has resulted in lower demand thereby reducing transaction numbers and property prices.” - Niall O’Grady, General Manager Business Strategy, Permanent TSB.

"Within the Economic and Social Research Institute's forecasts released earlier today, an assumption was made that only 40,000 units would be completed this year. For this to happen, output would have to fall by 63 per cent in the final seven months. This seems overly aggressive to us." – Dermot O’Leary, Goodbody Stockbrokers.

“Residential applications have come to a halt. We have had very few applications for that this year." - Paul Maloney, chief executive, Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA).

Quotes of the Week

‘‘Now is a brilliant time to make a shed load of money” - William Newsom, Head of Commercial Valuations, Savills.

“We have seen nothing to suggest that a change in legislation would be in the public interest. We will make our view known to the Minister for Justice if asked but, at the end of the day, it is a government decision.” - Gary Davis, deputy Data Protection Commissioner.

"The whole area of commercial service charges has been a potential source of dispute between landlords and tenants, owners and occupiers, for many years." - David O'Brien, past chairman of the Irish Property and Facility Management Association (IPFMA).

“Indeed, given the large overhang of property on the market, likelihood of an ECB rate hike, weakening economic and labour market conditions and tightening of credit conditions especially in the mortgage market, prices may continue to fall over the remainder of this year. It may take a price fall of close to 20% before the market finds a bottom. Even then, we would not anticipate any marked pick up in prices in 2009 given the subdued prospects for the economy next year. Thus, we do not expect any meaningful recovery in house prices until 2010.” – AIB Irish Economic Update

“A new planning scheme and masterplan for the Dublin docklands, due to be unveiled next week, is to recommend that the maximum height for new buildings at the North Lotts, Grand Canal Harbour and Grand Canal Docks should be increased from seven to 20 storeys.” – The Irish Times.

Quotes of the Week

"We maintain the view that, while housing will remain in contraction for some time, any significant worsening is unlikely.” - Pat McArdle, Chief Economist, Ulster Bank.

“We continue to believe that, for the market as a whole, an average price adjustment of some 15-20% from the peak is on the cards.” – AIB Housing Market Bulletin

"The correction may not be complete, but my own view is that it's possibly more complete than has been said." - Mark FitzGerald, Chief Executive, Sherry FitzGerald.

"Some 40pc of people think property prices will fall. Clearly, there has been a swing in people's mood between this year and last." - Pat Farrell, Irish Banking Federation.

‘‘Given how difficult and challenging the market already is, and the fact that by next month we will be into the summer slowdown period, I don’t see a rate rise having any great effect on prices.” – Paul Murgatroyd, Economist, Douglas Newman Good.

"On the one hand, the National Consumer Agency demands that we provide very specific information about property prices. On the other, the Data Protection Act prohibits us from releasing that information without the consent of both seller and buyer. This consent is not always available, as many private citizens do not want that information to become public." – Edward Carey, President, IAVI.

“Last September Cushman & Wakefield’s European Cities Monitor found that top executives ranked Dublin 12th out of 33 cities in terms of value for money office accommodation. This was followed two weeks ago by the Lisney Rental Indices which found that office rents had remained stable during 2007. With the global economy slowing and with Ireland’s cost competitiveness now coming into sharper focus, this is clearly good news for corporate occupiers.” - Dr. John McCartney, Head of Research, Lisney.

“The issues relating to water and drainage infrastructure are no longer an obstacle to progress and that work on transport infrastructure is well under way, as part of an urban framework plan to which we are contributing that will allow development at Sandyford to begin again.” - Garry Colligan, spokesman, Sandyford Stakeholders Forum.

The Lisbon Treaty

Despite the main political parties urging the nation to vote yes, Ireland's ratification of the Lisbon treaty looks far from a done deal. The latest polls showed those who have decided to vote no to be in the ascendancy, now at 35% - a 5% lead over those who have decided to vote yes. Crucially, 28% of voters are still undecided on the matter and theirs will be the opinion that swings it one way or the other.

At the latest IPAV AGM, Alan Redmond urged all members to say yes to Lisbon but how are those in the property industry intending to vote?

Have your say in our poll to the right.

Quotes of the Week

• Figures show national house price reduction of 1.1% in April; First four months of 2008 reduction stands at 3.3%, while year on year the rate is 9.2%; New house prices fell by almost double the national rate. - Permanent TSB / ESRI House Price Index.
• "First-time buyers have been hit and hit hard by the credit crunch, and so far our Government has done nothing to help them or intervene in the market" - Joan Burton, Labour's finance spokeswoman.
• “House prices are back to 2003 levels in many parts of the country” - David Clerkin, Sunday Business Post.
• “Nobody can seriously expect that we will exceed last year’s [commercial] take-up figures” – John McCartney, Lisney.
• “Developed economies have recorded some tremendous hits over the past 12 months. In the light of these big hits, things could have been a lot worse than they are.” - Jørgen Elmeskov, acting OECD chief economist.
• “A quarter of all construction workers will lose their jobs by the end of next year” – Irish Independent.
• “On the basis of our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided at today’s meeting to leave the key ECB interest rates unchanged” – Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the ECB
• "We considered that - it is not excluded - that after having carefully examined the situation, we could decide to move our rates by a small amount in our next meeting in order to secure the solid anchoring of inflation expectations" - Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the ECB

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