The future of PropertyNews.com

For two weeks running now, the Indo's property magazine, PropertyPlus, has run an ad for Globrix.ie a property search engine owned or at least backed by News International (Sunday Times, Murdoch etc.). Why would they do such a thing? Promote a rival? What about their own PropertyNews.com/.ie? Does this signal the end of that venture, or its departure from the South at least?

Globrix, already establised in the UK, does not charge estate agents - the software behind Globrix just lifts their listings from the agents' sites and reproduces the information on Globrix.com. They make their money through related advertising down the side of the site. Might MyHome and Daft be worried? Or do they take confidence from the Funda fiasco?

The Globrix site states: "Our ultra-clever software tracks down almost every single estate agent in the UK and scours their websites, coming back with a nearly perfect list of what's available to buy or rent. Note that we said, 'almost every' and 'nearly perfect'."

Hmmm. On a similar site I just looked for property in Temple Bar and here's what I got ...

Talk about misleading advertising!

Quotes of the Week

Week starting 26.01.2009

"Everybody is waiting for the bottom and, when the bottom comes, everybody acts and you can then have price inflation -- but I think that's still far off for our economy." Paul O'Connor, The Property Week, Irish Independent, 30.01.2009

"They don’t want to admit that there aren’t sufficient assessors examined to enable a smooth lead into the introduction of BER in Ireland. They are a year behind where they should be on it." IAVI Chief Executive Alan Cooke on SEI, The Irish Times, 29.01.2009

"It has to be remembered that the fortunes of the construction industry are cyclical in nature and while it may be going through a downturn at the moment, it will recover." Sean McCormack, Director of Prosfessional Services, DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, Irish Independent, 28.01.2009

"As a result, house prices will fall dramatically in the next 24 months and this alone will influence many young people and couples to give the keys back. Negative equity causes people to give up hope and throw in the towel because, if there is no short- to-medium term reason for houses prices to rise, there is little point, bar your sense of obligation to the bank, in paying back the loan." David McWilliams, Irish Independent, 28.01.2009

"The main cause of the crisis that we now face was the turn of the housing cycle. The inevitable bursting of our housing bubble triggered a severe contraction in economic activity, a collapse of housing-related tax revenues and an accompanying rapid deterioration in the public finances, and a marked weakening in the stability of the banking system." Alan Ahearne, Lecturer in Economics at NUI Galway, The Irish Times, 27.01.2009

"Any properties coming on the market recently are moving quicker because they are priced right. It is sale agreed close to the asking price whereas before Christmas it could be 10% below asking price. It's a little bit more advanced than what is being portrayed." Peter Magee, Director of Sherry FitzGerald, Sunday Tribune, 25.01.2009

"If 2007 was dominated by a stand-off between buyers and sellers who refused to lower their unfeasibly high prices, then 2008 became the year in which the Irish property market was forced not only to take its medicine, but also to swallow a great deal more besides." Mark Keenan, The Sunday Times, 25.01.2009

"With reduced demand and reduced level of activity, take-up is likely to fall below 130,000 square metres during 2009 - that’s a level last seen in the early part of decade following the combined effects of the dot.com crash, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the foot and mouth crisis." Paul Scannell, HWBC on occupier activity in the Dublin office market, Sunday Business Post, 25.01.2009

"Clearly the entire market is witnessing unprecedented turbulence. However, it is important to note that investments in our property funds are underpinned by a range of high-quality property assets and should also form part of a fully diversified portfolio for the investor." Spokesman for Hibernian Aviva, Sunday Tribune, 25.01.2009

Quotes of the Week

Week starting 19.01.2009

"In the boom, the purchase of a property became not about buying a home and setting down roots, but a short-term financial investment that has left homeowners with a hangover of concern and obsession with the changing value of their purchase. At a micro level, we have seen that buyers are still active but a lot more reticent and discerning." Edward Carey, President IAVI, 23.01.2009

"When I saw the way the market was going, I realised that a lot of the people who’d bought foreign property in recent years would be trying to sell – and that if they werent able to sell, they’d be looking for equity release. I saw that as a big opportunity." Paul McGlade, ACAP Group, The Irish Times, 23.01.2009

"Enquiries have been steadily increasing over the last two to three months but the issue of obtaining finance is restricting activity." Paul Grimes, Chairman of Real Estate Alliance, Irish Independent, 23.01.2009

"Now, you may have only one or two bidders on a property; whereas you might have had 10 three years ago. So there's less competition and more buyers are willing to walk away if their bid is not accepted." John McGuire, Managing Director of First Credit Mortgages, Irish Independent, 23.01.2009

"We're saying to local authorities to use estate agents to show apartments and houses and let them do what they do and decide on marketing and selling." John O'Connor, Chief Executive, Affordable Homes Partnership, Irish Independent, 22.01.2009

"It is unrealistic to expect land to buck the trend that has everything around it falling." Philip Farrelly, agricultural consultant and investment expert, Irish Independent, 20.01.2009

"Regardless of where the location is, people can look at what a house on the same road achieved during the peak, and then deduct 20–25% from that selling price. At least that's what buyers are doing. It's important to remember that the asking price now is not the closing price that's achieved." Ronan Lyons, Economist, Daft.ie, Sunday Tribune, 18.01.2009

Quotes of the Week

Week starting 12.01.2009

"With yields having moved sharply upwards in 2008 and the cost of money continuing its fall from summer peaks, as time goes on it’s becoming obvious that commercial property is becoming an increasingly attractive investment for those who have the funding to make a deal in this climate." Guy Hollis, Managing Director of CB Richard Ellis in Dublin, 16.01.2009

"Pressure has been put on lenders to pass on decreases to homeowners, but buy-to-let mortgages are . . . a different category, and in most cases, the banks are not passing them on at all." Michael Dowling of the Irish Mortgage Advisers’ Federation, The Irish Times, 16.01.2009

"I believe we are coming to a point this year where that will bottom out.... We had a period where output outstripped demand and a period before that where it was very difficult to meet demand. Now we have a situation where a necessary correction is taking place." Brian Cowen, Taoiseach, Irish Independent, 15.01.2009

The bottom line for a prospective house purchaser is that it doesn't really matter where prices and interest rates are, if one is feeling very uncertain about future job security and earnings, then one will not take on a mortgage. The painful reality is that job and earnings uncertainty is now rampant." Jim Power, Economist, Friends First, Irish Independent, 15.01.2009

"The lack of publicly available information on actual sales prices puts buyers at a disadvantage as there is often a big difference between an initial asking price and the eventual selling price." Michael Grehan, Managing Director of Sherry FitzGerald, The Irish Times, 15.01.2009

"As this review of Ireland's property market in 2008 shows, asking prices for Irish property fell on average 15% during the last year. That makes 2008, in many ways, the opposite of 2006. While asking prices were static throughout 2007, the 12 months of 2008 have seen the typical home lose just over €50,000 in value, almost the exact amount gained in 2006." Ronan Lyons, Economist, Daft.ie, 14.01.2009

"Bread and butter work such as rent reviews and valuations have become the jam on what admittedly is a fairly miserable sponge." IAVI Annual Survey, The Irish Times, 14.01.2009

"It has taken us 10 years to get into this situation – it will in all likelihood take us 10 years to get out of it." Morgan Kelly, Economist, UCD, The Irish Times, 13.01.2009

"We keep telling people that this is not a V-shaped recovery. It is a recovery that is going to be over a number of years, and therefore you don’t want to be too exposed to risky assets. So don’t jump back into equities or property." Gary Dugan, Chief Investment Adviser at Merrill Lynch, The Irish Times, 13.01.2009

"This is why we have so much of a problem with development, because it has been done without infrastructure – you have to get the support of the community." Brian Gallivan, Developer, Sunday Business Post, 11.01.2009

Quotes of the Week

Week starting 05.01.2009

"We have got to get real as we lost the run of ourselves. Now Irish (house) prices have gone as low as they can go. They are now priced at cost." Owen O'Callaghan, Developer, Irish Independent, 08.01.2009

"As the financial crisis has bled into the real economy, its effects have had an impact on occupier markets in the past few months. Business and consumer confidence is at an all-time low and so the appetite for expansion and re-location going into 2009 is minimal. Greater competition for tenants in this climate will certainly put pressure on rental levels, as we’ve already seen in the office market." Patrick Koucheravy, Property Economist at CB Richard Ellis, 08.01.2009

"It all depends on the market. This in turn is down to confidence, investment and banking. On the housing side, affordability is improving and some banks are offering good packages especially for first time buyers following the falls in interest rates and the Government's tax reliefs." Martin Whelan, Public Affairs Director, CIF, Irish Independent, 06.01.2009

"Overall we anticipate that 2009 will, in football parlance, be a year of two halves, with a somewhat sluggish opening months replaced with a period of heightened activity and notable price stability. That said, there is no doubt that the year ahead will remain a challenging one for the economy." Marian Finnegan, Chief Economist, Sherry FitzGerald Group, 06.01.2009

"The Celtic Tiger may be dead and if the banking crisis continues I could be considered insolvent". Sean Dunne, Developer, The Irish Times, 05.01.2009

"Prices will fall until people feel more certain about the environment." David Duffy, ESRI, Sunday Independent, 04.01.2009

"The banks allowed their balance sheets to play tricks on them. As property prices rose, the underlying collateral, which underpinned their property lending, became progressively debased. It is this very fragility of collateral that is now hammering them. The fragile collateral, which up until the top of the cycle was driving profits, is now the hazardous waste that is driving up losses." David McWilliams, Economist, Sunday Business Post, 04.01.2009