Agent Provocateur Irish Property Market

Quotes of the Week

2009-10-22T08:57:00.001Z

"It is now virtually impossible to let a Georgian on one of the city squares. Had the planners been in touch with what is happening on the ground they may have acceded to the wishes of the SCS. To refuse permission to a reputable society brings the planning process into disrepute. The verdict may well lead to another empty Georgian." (Irish Times Property Supplement)

2009-09-21T06:38:00.002Z

"Given that most agents say prices are now back to 2001/2002 levels she may still be being optimistic, although the house does feature electronic gates." (Sunday Independent)

"There are a number of deficiencies," such as the absence of precise mechanisms on the part of the developer to complete the development, to verify the quality of construction, to address snagging and completion issues and to furnish to the owners and the management company a final certificate of completion and compliance, together with all estate documentation for the overall development." Siobhan O’Dwyer, Society of Chartered Surveyors.

Quotes of the Week

2009-09-17T21:56:00.002Z

The Irish property market was so obscenely bloated that public sentiment may only allow a snail-like recovery of value that could take many years. (Harry McGee, The Irish Times)

Homes should be seen as part of a community and not just as stand-alone properties or assets, according to Nic Retsinas, a director at the centre for housing studies at Harvard University.

Quotes of the Week

2009-09-10T20:18:00.006Z

"Taxing the use and development of all land to the point of unviability appears to be a headline grabbing, political manoeuvre to make the NAMA legislation more palatable." IAVI President Aine Myler

"Why has Ireland chosen to adopt the position that the price paid for houses is private information, when this information is vital for the common good in the effective operation of the property market in both buoyant and bad times?" IAVI President Aine Myler

"The property markets are collapsing around the globe, so we are joining the fast pace of the 21st century. Players can build structures that increase their property values, such as schools or eco-friendly wind farms, or they can sabotage opponents by building sewage plants or prisons on the competition’s property," a spokesperson for Monopoly's Waterford-based manufacturer, Hasbro.

‘‘The only solace Nama gives developers is more time to repay loans." CIF director general Tom Parlon.

"Never has it been more important for all property valuations to be carried out in strict compliance with the highest professional standards." David Freeman of Knight Frank Dublin

"The head of Hooke & MacDonald 18-months ago on television went on record to say that the industry could turn-off the supply tap like the flick of a switch, yet the industry is still overbuilding in terms of the completion rate. It defies logic that persons employed in the auctioneering profession can boast about their longevity in an industry where they have persistently been upbeat on prices and recommending that "now is a good time to buy" (their motto and permanent creed), whilst simultaneously complain about vendor reality when it comes to price. They are of course, an unregulated profession where the dictum "Caveat Emptor" resonates. To that end prospective buyers beware! A 2-bed in Dundrum for 339k, wait until its 280k, then 240k etc. Cigarettes come with a 'health warning', these guys should come with a different warning - listening to them and acting upon their advice could seriously damage your wealth!" Derek Brawn, author of Ireland's House Party.

"Will it operate for the industry, because whatever about the valuations and the transfers, if it does not work for the industry, if you don’t have a returning functioning market it will cost the taxpayer an awful lot more than it costs him today." Michael O’Flynn

Quotes of the Week

2009-05-25T06:03:00.013Z

"The bottom line is that the Irish property market is heavily entrenched in a deflation spiral and, given the myriad of factors that have led to its creation, it is unlikely to recover any time soon." (Alan McQuaid, Bloxham Stockbrokers, in The Irish Times)

"One has to be critical of interference with the property market generally in normal circumstances, but these are not normal circumstances. There are 60,000 houses around the country with for-sale signs outside them." (George Lee in relation to his suggestion that stamp duty be reduced to 2%, in The Irish Times)

"From now on, there will have to be consistency between a local authority’s development plan and the National Spatial Strategy, regional planning guidelines and ministerial directives, such as those I have issued to a number of councils." (Minister John Gormley, in The Irish Times)

"We have a price in mind which is considerably less than the asking price, but we’re not going to let someone make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear at our expense. We’ll play it cool and see who really wants our money, it’s not a lot, but it’s a sum we can stand over. And we have trends on our side." (House hunter, Don Morgan, The Irish Times)

"This is the fastest rate of decline in national prices that we have seen to date since the index started in 1996. The particularly dramatic reduction in prices for First Time Buyers reflects their reluctance to buy in a market that is still declining and where unsold properties are being reduced further." (Niall O’Grady, General Manager Business Strategy, permanent tsb)

"All borrowers will be required to meet their full legal obligations. There will be a hardening of the approach to these borrowers – taxpayers’ money is at stake and the agency [NAMA] will be expected to protect it in a commercial way and with an independent remit.” (Minister Brian Lenihan)

“The Government has stated that Nama will have a clear and strong mandate to ensure that Irish taxpayers do not ultimately end up paying for the over-exuberant lending practices of the past decade. Failure to face up, recognise and deal with the problems in our banking system is simply too costly to contemplate for this and future generations of Irish people.” (Brendan McDonagh, interim head of NAMA)

"The last thing AIB or Bank of Ireland want to see is the entire portfolio of some bankrupt property developer dumped on the market by a liquidator. Not only would the banks have to write off their losses on that particular developer, they would have to write down all the other loans extended to all the other developers to reflect the value of the prices being achieved by the liquidator... If it takes the precipitous collapse of Paddy Kelly to force everybody to jump into the unknown and get on with cleaning up the mess, then it is to be welcomed." (John McManus, The Irish Times)

"AT long last the Auctioneers Bill hit the Senate on Thursday. The cowboys are being reined in. The same cowboys are believed to have beaten a path of protest to the Minister for Finance's door demanding some of the Nama valuation action. Apparently they are fuming that The Irish Times published a report suggesting that our oh-so-honest (but much-maligned) estate agents will not be allowed to give valuations for Nama.Why should they?

These are the guys who deceived the nation with phoney guide prices, who seduced young buyers into auction rooms by quoting artificially low figures in the newspapers. Their record on valuations is abysmal. How could the Government put any trust in their wild guesses at the value of a toxic asset? They were always way off the mark with the non-toxic type. These are the clowns whom an RTE Prime Time programme revealed were indulging in malpractices , including fake bids at auctions and quietly supplying vendors with knowledge of buyers' financial strength. They obtained the information through their own mortgage brokers." (Senator Shane Ross, Sunday Independent.)

"There are about half a dozen developers in the country, mainly in the Dublin region but not restricted to the Dublin region, who really lost the run of themselves. They got us into all kinds of problems over the last five years or so. Looking at projects properly -- realising we are a little country of four million people and we are not the greatest nation in Europe the way some of the developers had convinced themselves we were.'' (Owen O'Callaghan)

Quotes of the Week

2009-05-21T07:08:00.006Z

"We are clearly open for business and we are working with our customers, both new and existing, to meet their mortgage needs. We are approving 4 out of 5 applications and our branches are reporting an increase in the number of enquiries from both first time buyers and existing home owners." (Bank of Ireland statement)

"Enabling households to realise their home ownership ambitions is a fundamental part of the day-to-day business of banking. We view the additional 30% capacity for lending to first time buyers in 2009, which is being provided under the terms of the recapitalisation scheme for Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank, as a very significant starting point in the normalisation of the credit flow for house purchase. It is important that first time buyers, in good financial standing, have a line of credit open to them to allow them to make informed decisions in engaging again with the Irish housing market." (Mr. Michael Finneran, T.D., Minister for Housing and Local Services at the C.E.I.’S conference)

"The construction industry has a lot to answer for. Their over-production of property and miscalculation of the market has caused this depression. There is an overhang of 90,000 residential units for sale. We cannot sustain construction for the sake of building jobs. " (Ivan Yates, Irish Examiner)

"The state support of housing benefit is out of control. Mortgage and rental subsidy schemes need to be revisited in the context of the collapse of the housing market. Immigrant accommodation is costing us €52m a year. Why should the state overpay for negative equity loans and unadjusted rents? It is only to prop up bad banks and failed property investors. " (Ivan Yates, Irish Examiner)

"The [positive economic] trends identified in this paper are all positive for Ireland, but the property market here will take a while to feel the benefit. There is still some pain to come and more realism is needed in some quarters." (Margaret Fleming, Director, Investment in Jones Lang LaSalle)

Quotes of the Week

2009-05-13T08:25:00.004Z

"Cheap accommodation, like cheap energy, is a competitive plus for any economy. In fact, if we look at successful European economies, cheap accommodation relative to wages is the basis of a dynamic economy." (David McWilliams, Irish Independent)

"In other words, to make it worth your while buying the house, the price would need to more than half from where it is now. We have to assume that the days of large capital gains on houses are over. Therefore, the average Irish house in these estates is likely to fall by anywhere between 50pc and 60pc in the next few years. And even that is assuming that prices don't undershoot on the downside the way they overshot on the upside." (David McWilliams, Irish Independent)

"Society empowers local councillors through the development plan process to zone land for development purposes. A system under which individual developers, in association with private banking, have reaped substantial benefit. Should their property rights still have primacy over society’s property rights as some pundits argue? The time has come to materially change the way development land is valued. The phrase the “common good”, as per the Constitution, should be given its true meaning and not the common good of property developers." (John Malone, Irish Times)

"It is in everyone’s interest to get the property market moving again. At its peak, the investment market was worth €3bn – this year we will be lucky to reach €300m. That means a drop of €250m in stamp duty revenue alone. And I have not even begun to think about the impact of declining property values on personal pension funds." (Phil Hogan TD, Fine Gael, address IPAV conference)

"People thought that no matter what happened with the property, if it came to the crunch, they could always dispose of it and there would always be a purchaser. The boom facilitated access to the property market for many new investors and now the impact of ever-decreasing capital values is hitting property owners hard across all sectors. A lot of owner managers entered the market on the back of the ongoing rising tide and now find themselves in significant personal and business debt, with lease agreements made in the past three years placing a huge burden on them. It used to be that properties ran themselves and there was always an occupier to fit the type of unit you had. This has totally changed and the need for companies to manage their properties effectively is now more important than ever." (Michael Hogan, managing director of Capital Assets)

Quotes of the Week

2009-05-11T06:48:00.002Z

"Any move by the Government now to try to discredit Irish auctioneers and estate agents as in some way being to blame for inflated prices, or incompetent to value sites and buildings is utterly unjust and unfair ... It would be highly unethical and improper of the Government to engage entirely foreign expertise whose knowledge of the Irish market is limited." (John Shaw, IPAV President)

"The days of bad planning have to be over at this stage." (Environment Minister, John Gormley)

"We removed the claw back for many of the units because we felt with some of the one-beds there was very little difference between the affordable homes price and the actual market value. We thought it would be unfair to impose restrictions on such buyers. (Paul Maloney, chief executive of the DDDA.)

"It is true that the speed of the depreciation has taken some of our members by surprise, but anecdotal evidence suggests that there is a strong belief that prices have reached, or are very close to the bottom. If there is further depreciation, it is likely to result in an over-correction, which would quickly cause prices to rebound to current values." (Simon Ensor of the IAVI National Council's residential panel)

Quotes of the Week

2009-05-07T22:33:00.006Z

"As we can all see, Dublin, Cork, Galway and other places have developed out of control. As our city centre populations decline, the suburbs sprawl. Even now we have the fastest growing population in Europe and space is running out in our cities. The fundamental problem is that we have been building in the wrong way -- at too low a density and with a lack of concern for the required infrastructure/facilities -- with the shortsighted view that it is the commodity of the house that matters, to the detriment of developing sustainable new communities... Many of our suburban housing estates are big cul-de-sacs, leading nowhere and laid out to suit cars". Most of suburbia is single tenure and single use, with a common household size. It can, indeed be a "place of isolation, being boring, monocultural, and lacking a sense of community. To undo this legacy will be nigh on impossible, although the upcoming rise in energy and transport costs may be a suitable catalyst for serious change when the economy allows," he concludes. The stakes are massive, our responsibilities are huge. Will we be known as the generation that squandered the opportunities or the one that created an enlarged cohesive and fair society for our children and theirs?" (Architect Sean Harrington comments in a new RIAI publication entitled The New Housing 2)

"But blaming estate agents is utterly pointless. They are sales people. They sell property. Some are very knowledgeable on their subject and are extremely good negotiators and others are useless at their job. But, at the end of the day, their job is just to sell property. They are not paid to worry about whether or not the buyers will eventually sell on the property again at a profit or a loss. In the same way as estate agents were not responsible (nor congratulated) for the huge profits people made on property investments during the “good old days” they can hardly be blamed now for “putting people into negative equity”."(Isobel Morton in The Irish Times reacting to Derek Brawn's performance on the Late Late Show)

"The signs are that buyers are prepared to move where they perceive real value. The next step for the market will be to get transparency on prices. With legislation currently being pushed through to activate the National Property Services Regulatory Authority, auctioneers can only hope that one of its first moves will be to demand that property prices to be recorded and put into the public domain." (Orna Mulcahy, The Irish Times)

"When we made our offer, we thought the agent was bluffing: there couldn’t be another offer, surely. Who the hell would have money in this day and age? There was indeed another offer, pure and simple. We were just too mistrusting and nervous as hell to realise that, so didn’t get it. Hardball game over. We also made the rookie mistake of having our heads filled to the brim with tales of tricky estate agents looking to squeeze a few extra shekels out of gullible buyers, regardless of inconveniences like telling the truth. You end up parsing each phrase with more care than a diplomat in the Middle East. Well, that one we misread. Estate agents are honest. Damn." (Don Morgan, The Irish Times)

“Current negotiations fall into two categories in our offices in Blessing ton and Baltinglas, offers well below reserve on properties that are on the market for some time and good offers for property that are not yet on the market but identified buyers have an opportunity to buy”. (Simon Murphy of Murphy Real Estate Alliance in Blessington and Baltinglass)

2009-05-04T09:59:00.002Z

"The banks are being bailed out and they are putting the boot in right, left and centre, destroying businesses. They're not lending and they're getting away with telling lies. The sadness is that our lovely country is being destroyed. And we all have a responsibility for it. We over-expanded; fully accepted. But a lot of people gained from it, people selling land, the Revenue in particular, the Government got a huge boost in revenue from people buying homes. And the sad thing for me is that Anglo Irish has been blamed for so much. Seanie FitzPatrick, David Drumm, they're the best in town. They made mistakes, of course. But there's been too much blame passed on to them." (Paddy Kelly)

"What's wrong with development? Are we so confused in our thinking that we misunderstand what development is? The nicest places in the world have come about through development....Were we wrong to house Compaq in Ireland? But we're being told we were wrong. Were we wrong to house O2? We're being told we were wrong. We're awful. We're developers. Were we wrong to build Smithfield and Clarion Quay? As of now, did we make a mistake to do any of that? As of now, that's what's being printed -- every day of the week." (Paddy Kelly)

"We've worked our nuts off to make thing work and to have performing loans. We're going to be screwed to balance against the developers who messed up. They're hijacking the income from the assets to pay for the revenue they have to pay out on the bond [that the government will use to fund the acquisition of Nama's loans]. Are guys supposed to work out these problems for nothing? Because once something goes into Nama you're effectively no longer involved. The income is ringfenced so they'll take it away and cripple you. This thing is ferocious." (Anonymous senior property development executive)

Quotes of the Week

2009-05-01T06:21:00.003Z

"They don’t understand why you have to put the assets into Nama when Nama is likely to leave the loans with the banks and manage them like a credit committee." (Anonymous accountant, quoted in the Irish Times, representing anonymous developers who are trying to prevent transfer of their performing assets to NAMA: concerned that the Government would take over commercial properties such as shopping centres, on which loans were being repaid, because they were offered as security for, in some cases, smaller property development loans.)

"When called in to give their professional opinion on a property and its value, agents will make all the right sounds while avoiding saying anything which may later be used against them. In other words, they avoid giving any opinion on the possible sale price until they have first established precisely what price the vendor expects their property to achieve." (Isabel Morton, The Irish Times)

"Tenants are wise and are bargaining hard for discounts on advertised rent. Invariably they get the reductions, as it’s a renters’ market out there." (Irish Times article)

"As a long term proposition property is still a perfectly good asset class, the dotcom crash didn’t mean people stopped sending emails and despite the property crash living in a house/apartment still remains the most popular choice. The advised view (from our firm at least) is for home buyers to make solid long term location decisions that they can, and for investors to run the numbers to determine their target buying prices rather than looking at the market and trying to model your investment to work within the framework of current asking prices." (Karl Deeter of Irish Mortgage Brokers)

"It will take longer here to clean it up but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do good business during this period." (Swedish estate agent, Agneta Jacobsson, addressing Sherry FitzGerald business breakfast.)

"For years, we have been encouraged to ‘‘invest’’ our money in now-decimated pension funds as tax-allowable deductions. Similarly, we have been encouraged, by a coterie of mortgage brokers, bankers and financial gurus, to buy our own homes. Instead of continuing to contribute to these ‘‘black hole funds’’, maybe we should be allowed to switch this pre-tax income to paying off mortgage debt on our principle private residences. The net cost to the revenue would be nominal, as it is swapping one form of tax-allowable deduction for another. Messrs Cowen and Lenihan should give us something to smile about, and let us tackle negative equity with our incomes." (Cahir O’Higgins, solicitor, Dublin 7 in the Sunday Business Post)

Glenkerrin no longer with Savills

2009-04-24T11:05:00.003Z

See Glenkerrin's ads for St Edmunds development in Leopardstown no longer mention Savills. Also hear that Savills have parted company with some more key staff, so watch this space.

Quotes of the Week

2009-04-23T08:02:00.005Z

"I reject any suggestion that NAMA is a bailout for developers. The agency will acquire loans at an appropriate discount from the face value of the loans held on the banks' balance sheets. Developers whose loans are transferred to NAMA, however, will continue to be liable for the entire face value of their loan obligations. There will be no discount for developers. I suspect Mr McWilliams is living up to his reputation for swimming against the tide, rather than offering any serious analysis." (Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan)

"Prospective buyers can plan ahead with greater certainty now that the mini-Budget is out of the way. There are more houses with multiple bids on them than before. We have 100 houses under offer at present.The banks are definitely open for business, although the journey from funding to closing is definitely more protracted. Everyone involved -- bankers, solicitors and buyers -- are being much more forensic." (Michael Grehan, Sherry FitzGerald, Irish Independent)

"There have been some sales, but the big problem is getting deals across the line. Plenty of prospective buyers have identified the property they want, driven a tough bargain and want to buy. But we are now finding customers who are distressed about how they are being treated by banks stretching out the loan process continually." (John O'Sullivan, Lisney, Irish Independent)

"There are certainly 'green shoots' showing at a number of housing developments. I'm no longer hearing unending dismal stories about phones not ringing and empty showhouses. Over the last six weeks or so things have improved greatly. It's nothing like it was in the 'good old days' of course, but sales have been steady. Mostly this is first time buyers who recognise that this is the time to buy, and it is unlikely that house prices will drop drastically from here on." (Valerie McGrath, Irish Independent, in an 'article' about Athlumney Wood development in Navan, where she is told "there have been 35 sales over the past few week".)

"The idea of buying a ’starter home’ just for the sake of it so you’d have the equity to move on in a few years is wrong, you should buy so that you can live and settle down in the place you actually want to live in. The sharp falls we are seeing now mean that many people will be able to do this in the future, unfortunately there is a lost generation who won’t." (Karl Deeter, Irish Mortgage Brokers)

"The banking climate for private investors could hardly be worse. For starters, lenders are looking for 20 per cent deposits and, even if they run with the investor, they are charging premiums of at least 1.25 to 1.75 per cent over the home loan rates. To add to the difficulties, many investors continue to be stung by a reluctance of some lenders to pass on the value of interest rate cuts on existing mortgages." (Jack Fagan, The Irish Times)

"Where was the Honest Joe auctioneer when the market began going south, and the loud noises in the business kept proclaiming it was still buoyant, dragging gullible first-time buyers into the web? Auctioneers didn't create the problem, but by God many of them fed off it like vultures, and if some were uncomfortable, they kept their own counsel. They can hardly now claim to be scapegoats. Sorry, Sarah, no concession to feminine fashion in the bunker. Get sized up for the unisex pair." (Michael Clifford in the Sunday Tribune)

MFO website live

2009-04-23T07:43:00.003Z

I see MFO (McGinley, Farrelly & O'Connor), the new Ranelagh-based agency whose boards seem to be popping up everywhere, have got their website fully up and running, including their own Property Review blog-type section (which I hope they maintain).

I just still wonder about the name. MF is one thing. FO is another. Put them together and you're surely asking for trouble! But maybe when you combine them, the rude associations are eradicated. It certainly doesn't seem to have caused this team any harm: we have 9 listings for them in the resale database already and yet they haven't even gone after that market as much as lettings et cetera and are only in business a few wet months.

What a time to start a new agency, but they appear to be made of the right stuff to manage.

One swallow makes a summer in newspaper land

2009-04-23T07:21:00.004Z

I see in the Irish Times today someone asks about agents not providing an advertised price:

"Q What’s the story with “price on application”? I thought it was a country thing but in looking at various property websites I see that it is now being used in Dublin. What’s the point? If the agent thinks it prompts interest, it doesn’t. It’s a turn off .

A Price on application is indeed a silly extra step, because all it takes is a phone call to find out what the asking price is. It’s not as if there is some difficulty in getting the information. For new homes, it’s generally because an agent doesn’t want to broadcast the price drop due to the sensitivities of owners who bought at the top of the market and is also usually an indication that the developer is willing to do a deal.

For second-hand houses it could be the case that the house has been on the market for so long that there have been multiple price drops, with more expected, so the seller feels “price on application” will save on the embarrassment of advertising each of those price drops.

Agents might also feel that if they could get you on the phone even for the minute it takes to tell you the price, they might be able to lure you into a viewing.

Whatever the reason, it’s difficult to argue with you that it is pointless and only serves to irritate, not intrigue, prospective buyers."

It is an interesting niche topic for a few property business types, but in fact, when you look at the numbers, we have noted only 15 properties out of nearly 3500 since January in Dublin city without an advertised price, and only 12 out of over 1100 in Co Dublin. So I would not label this a "thing" with the sense of "issue of public concern" or "phenomenon" as the letter writer (never named in these Q&As) does and the paper too by addressing it. The newspapers have a habit of taking a notion about something based on one or two instances and turning that into "information". It's not such a problem with minor issues like POAs but when it comes to pricing and agent behaviour it can be a big problem.

Quotes of the Week

2009-04-15T07:38:00.002Z

"These are no longer sufficiently attractive to purchasers who could otherwise buy on the open market without restrictions. In these difficult times, the Docklands Authority is making every effort to ensure that qualified applicants can take advantage of our schemes and so have adjusted the conditions accordingly." (Paul Moloney, Dublin Docklands Development Authority in The Irish Times regarding removal of selling restrictions from affordable homes under the DDDA's control)

"I SEE that Government sources have said that Nama, the National Asset Management Agency, is unlikely to employ any Irish estate agencies for the purposes of valuing the properties it acquires. What an indictment of Irish auctioneers. Is the Government really saying there is not one in the country who can be trusted to give a fair and reasonable value on a property?" (Sarah Carey, The Irish Times)

"If you were selling your house tomorrow would you give the sale to an auctioneer who might advise potential customers not to buy at the asking price? Of course not. You’d sue him if you found out he told buyers to hang on until next year. He might advise you to wait a couple of years, but if you gotta sell, you gotta sell. Within all bounds of decency – but using all his skill as a negotiator and salesman – you are paying the auctioneer to get the best price." (Sarah Carey, The Irish Times)

"Dublin City Council handles 4,000 applications a year, many of which are controversial. Will the members now require an inquiry into every difficult decision to be made? There is already an independent process in place through An Bord Pleanála to deal with appeals against decisions of the city council and it demonstrates due diligence and fair process in action." (Dublin city manager John Tierney, in a letter to Fine Gael councillor Paddy McCartan)

NAMA acronyms

2009-04-14T09:16:00.003Z

"Nothing Answered. Much Asked." (from a friend of mine) is my favourite.

Other suggestions:

Need a massive audit
Never actually making anything
Not another mad act

Not about money anyway
National Association for Mucking About

Quotes of the Week

2009-04-08T10:11:00.014Z

“Most of them will be wiped out. I think you’ll be finding a rush of Ryanair tickets for the developers to places they’ll be hard to find in. Otherwise, the wife and chisellers will be out on the street.” (Anonymous property developer, speaking to Frank McDonald, The Irish Times).

"One way or the other, the game is up for developers and bankers who lost the run of themselves during the boom. All we now need is a full and frank acknowledgement from the Government that it artificially inflated the bubble and thus made the bust more painful for everyone." (Frank McDonald, The Irish Times)

"To save the next generation of questioning managers, we need to get to the bottom of what really happened to those who sounded warnings in the past. Launching a distressed assets "bad bank" agency is no excuse to sweep this issue under the carpet." (Gerald Flynn, Align Management Solutions in The Irish Times)

"It's as volatile as this: if just one guy on your road is being forced to sell and he slashes his price into the dirt, there goes the neighbourhood." (Paul O'Connor of MyHat.ie ... NOT. I did not say that or anything that could even be paraphrased by the 10th person in a game of Chinese Whispers as that. Grrrr: so much for getting good quality, useful information about the market out there! What I am quoted as saying is simply not true. One swallow does not a summer make, and one property transaction on a street does not determine the market. It might influence it for a time, depress it in the case of a forced sale, but the circumstances of other sellers on the street may well negate that effect quite quickly, and the overall appeal of the street will certainly be far more powerful in terms of buyers' ultimate positions in negotiations.)

"The relief will now be targeted on those who bought their homes when prices were at their peak. It will also support those who now wish to move, improve or buy for the first time. As house prices fall, the provision of mortgage interest relief will be kept under review with a view to eventual abolition." (Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, TD)

"In times of fiscal shortcomings we fail to understand why the government introduces tax measures that act as a disincentive to activating property transactions. We are disappointed that the government is not taking this opportunity to stimulate the property market and rebuild the strong revenue income from property. The new stamp duty trade-in scheme is totally confusing and will do nothing virtually to help the market and has no immediate effect on generating revenue." (Knight Frank statement reacting to budget)

"The reason that some developers aren't interested in the trade-in is because of the stamp duty implications. They don't want to pay stamp duty on a property they aren't interested in. Delaying the payment of stamp duty will have little impact." (Carolyn Coyle, Savills)

"It's a sop to the industry, but it won't compensate for the hugely negative signals that the short-sighted Budget has given out." (Fintan McNamara, IPAV)

"There is no major benefit to the scheme but I could see how it would work in some cases. A first-time buyers' grant for one year would have been a better alternative. It would have reduced the stock and stabilised the housing market." (Hubert Fitzpatrick, Irish Home Builders Association)

"Landlords are increasingly being pragmatic about this problem and acknowledge that, as leases are long term relationships, they need to protect their investments and their rent roll. They are prepared to consider rent reductions. This is happening right across the board." (Jack Devlin of GVA Donal O Buachalla)

"That is the way things are evolving. I can see more and more people moving to this American model where shorter leases are offered and the landlord gets a percentage of the turnover instead of a rent. That is already happening in retail malls, like Kildare and Banbridge, and the same thing will happen in shopping centres." (Aidan Grimes of Bannon Commercial)

"We recognise the importance of tenant relationships in the schemes we manage and, in particular, the importance of keeping strong retailers and attractive retail offers trading. That said, we also must acknowledge the major financial obligations of the landlords and developers of these shopping schemes... In all cases we have asked tenants to provide full and detailed financial information to back up their position, as opposed to dealing with the blanket reduction requests that have been made by certain retail chains and groups which take no account of the individual trading performance of stores and locations." (Larry Brennan of Savills, The Irish Times)

"Stockbrokers didn’t see the obvious – for one simple reason. Stockbrokers are about as likely to tell you that the system is in big trouble as racing tipsters are to tell you that gambling on horses is a mug’s game. They both have to believe that the next big win is just around the corner. The truth that their game is up is as inconceivable to them as it should be evident to the rest of us." (Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times)

"Having made the fatal mistake of boosting the property market on the upside to satisfy their own political ends, we now are faced with the equally ‘appalling vista’ of buying bad assets too early with real cash and compounding the problem. We are about to unveil the most expensive ‘cash for trash’ scheme the world has ever seen, and no one is saying anything about it. The government is asking us to trust it on the price of a piece of land or a house. Why should we trust it? Nothing that the government has done over the past ten months would suggest that it could call the bottom of the market, so the potential for a monumental mistake is enormous." (David McWilliams, Sunday Business Post)

"There's definitely a pick-up, there is no doubt about that. Last week was the busiest week we had in the last year. We sold more than 50 apartments at the Waterways in the last week, which is all very positive. It's been a long time since we had that volume of sales over a five-day period." (Ronan O'Driscoll, Savills in the Sunday Independent)

Quotes of the Week

2009-04-02T19:25:00.008Z

"The stock of available second-hand properties has tightened noticeably, particularly in Dublin while the appetite for property as evidenced by viewing levels has increased. That said, consumer confidence levels remain low with a large proportion of potential purchasers reluctant to commit in the short term due to uncertainty in their own personal circumstances or concerns regarding the future market performance." (Marian Finnegan, Sherry FitzGerald)

"As such the emerging evidence appears to suggest that the property market is bottoming out and while we do not anticipate this will result in an immediate halt to price reductions it is likely that with hindsight this current period will be viewed as a period of over correction in the housing market." (Marian Finnegan, Sherry FitzGerald)

"It’s been extremely unfair of them to abandon the property market. Stamp duty has been a cash cow for the Government for years and they milked it and now it’s time to give property a break." (Conor Gallagher, Douglas Newman Good)

"They are not ready yet to bring back RPT (residential property tax). It is still being formulated. However, when they do introduce it they will have to offer a trade-off by reducing stamp duty." (Simon Ensor, Sherry FitzGerald)

"Would it [a stamp-duty holiday] kick-start the market? I’m not sure. Taking 7 per cent off the upper end, and 4 per cent off the middle range isn’t that enticing, with prices dropping as they are. Prudent negotiations will get you that discount anyway.” (Simon Ensor, Sherry FitzGerald)

"I think property has been marginalised in terms of revenue as a tax-take and I don’t think it’s relevant to this Budget." [It looks as if the market has corrected" itself pricewise and any "artificial remedies" will only boost it for a temporary period.] The main problem is the banking situation but that is not going to be resolved in this Budget. I believe the market will get going itself eventually of its own volition. The Government should sort out our banking issues which would solve problems in the property market and a few other things besides." (Des O'Malley jnr, Sherry FitzGerald O'Malley)

"It is important to have reached the bottom of the market before introducing any stimuli otherwise any positive benefit will be negligible. Once sales start to happen again the market will be indicating that is has reached a level where it is once again happy to do business." (John Cumisky, Cumisky Real Estate Alliance)

"They [the new breed of buyers making the most of a buyer's market] nearly have me on Zanex. The dread of my life at the moment is those BER certificates. They expect me to have one in my top pocket. It’s a head wrecker as they are standing in a period house with no insulation, single glazed windows and open fireplaces so the BER certificate is heading for an ‘F’ grade anyway." (Joe Kelly, Property Team JB Kelly)

"They knock on walls, stick screwdrivers through wallpapered walls and even remove skirting boards looking for damp. It’s a nightmare. And parents of first-time buyers are the worst. They come along to give their children advice but … one parent told me that the house was sinking and started rolling coins along the floor trying to prove that the property had subsided. Of course, once you see the clipboard, you know you’re in trouble and will be there for hours. They generally have a list of prepared questions and you can see that they have gone through it all before in at least 20 other houses. And some bring a compass to confirm the orientation. I’ve often thought that, if I could pick up a house and move it, I’d be a wealthy man!" (John Newcombe, Newcombe Estates)

"The number of times I am asked: ‘Have they gone bust or are they just divorcing?’ They then ask: ‘What was the price?’ Followed by: ‘What’s the price now?’ . Followed by: ‘And when will you be reducing the price again?’ They know their way around these days; they have all watched ‘Duncan’, and go around sucking their teeth and knocking on walls and tapping things. But, as Finnegan says: “We’re not complaining. It’s better to have know-alls viewing properties than no one at all." (Iain Finnegan, Finnegan Menton)

"Anecdotal information from our members would suggest that the level of investors is still quite strong which reaffirms that there is a strong mentality amongst people to invest in property but they are currently slow to move on this instinct due to the negative sentiment that still exists in the market. Introducing a property market stimulus would help bring stability, boost confidence and send a strong message that property remains a good long term investment. Owner-occupiers and investors alike are looking for signs of spring. Getting things moving again benefits all groups, not least the Government’s tax takings." (Paul Grimes, Chairman of Real Estate Alliance.)

"Our consultative group have recommended that if the government are serious about their green agenda, they should address this issue by giving buyers of A-rated homes a 10% grant towards buying." (Eimer O’Keeffe. CEO of Real Estate Alliance)

"Cash has dried up. Banks are not lending despite broadcasting ads saying they are. It’s difficult to get any money at the moment." (Tom Parlon, CIF)

"AIB has not changed its lending criteria. Each application is evaluated on its own merits with capacity to repay a key consideration." (AIB spokeperson)

"We call on the government to urgently find a mechanism to take account of the toxic assets of banks. Until the banking sector comes forward and declares its hand and honestly sets out those of its debts that are recoverable and those that are not, the economy will remain in a stranglehold. Without the details of the extent of these bad debts, funding from international lenders is at a standstill, stopping the flow of finance into the county and a vast array of lending to all parts of our economy, including small, medium and large businesses and the vital first time homebuyers' market. This stagnation is unacceptable; until the banks’ loan books are written down it is unlikely that we can move on from this phase." (Edward Carey, President of the IAVI)

"There has been a significant shift towards letting rather than sales activity, particularly in the latter half of 2008 and the year to date. We estimate that almost 90% of activity is now leasing rather than sales. Leasing activity took over as the dominant source of activity in 2008 and this is also expected to remain the trend for the rest of 2009 and into 2010." (Gavin Butler, Director Industrial Division, Savills)

"Mortgage holders on a fixed-rate mortgage have had to bear all these extra costs, cuts and charges too; yet their monthly mortgage bill has not reduced at all. One constituent told me his bank is charging him €14,000 to switch from his 12-year fixed-rate mortgage. It should be possible for the banks to offer a once-off penalty-free switch to existing customers. No-one is asking for a free ride, just a bit of fair play." (Roisin Shorthall, Labour spokesperson)

"The level of business has fallen away as the economy contracted, so the measures [layoffs] are simply a reflection of the current economic climate. We would hope that, by taking this action and taking a reduction in our salaries, it would reduce the need for any further action." (Angus Potterton, Savills)

ThePropertyPin.com v MyHome.ie

2009-03-24T10:13:00.000Z

Quotes of the Week

2009-03-24T09:41:00.004Z

"Building a basic house should be no more complex or expensive than this. Unfortunately, a lot of vested interests ensure that it is. Governments, banks and employers all benefit from having a society yoked under mortgages – it ensures control, compliance and vast profits through taxes and interest payments. Now might be a time to reconsider all this. A house should, and can, cost the price of a car – something you repay over a year or two, instead of your life." (Manchan Magan, in the Irish Times)

“This is a first and important step in the overdue process of bringing the buying and selling of properties here into the 21st century,” says Kevin O’Higgins, the president of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association. (Irish Times.)

Commenting on the permanet tsb/ESRI House Price Index results for February, Niall O’Grady, General Manager Business Strategy, permanent tsb said “while affordability is improving for customers due to the series of rate reductions and two consecutive years of reductions in house prices, customers seem unconvinced that the market has bottomed out yet.”

"Auctions are the best way of gauging the market and when a property like this sells at €1.6m, it indicates we are at or close to the bottom of the market." (Yvonne Hogan, Property Editor at Independent)

Marking Bergins 25 years in business: CONGRATULATIONS

2009-03-20T14:53:00.001Z

Name: Denis Bergin, FIAVI, Geraldine Bergin, Sara Bergin and Nicola Williams

Company: Bergins Valuers and Estate Agents Ltd

A bit about your career to date:
Denis Bergin began his career 49 years ago, in what was then known as Smith Griffin. Here he met Geraldine Hilson, and after they had married, he became a founding partner of Fitzgerald and Partners with Alexis Fitzgerald. Denis helped to merge Fitzgerald and Partners with Sherry’s and then in 1984 he and Geraldine started Bergins.

A small but discrete clientele moved with Denis in 1984 and this client list has grown through the years, working with Bergins on the basis that a very personal and private service is attained.

In the last 8 years Denis and Geraldine have been joined by two of their three daughters – first the youngest, Sara, and latterly, Nicola, the eldest who moved from the IFSC to help take the company in to the next generation.

Denis is a Fellow of the IAVI, Secretary to the Irish Timber Growers Association and has various ancillary memberships with industry groups and bodies.

Sara has completed her BA in Property studies in Bolton Street, and Nicola has a Degree in Economics from Trinity College in Dublin.

Most of their business is built up by word of mouth, and all of their clients know that they can be assured of privacy and discretion at all times.

Any big news/breakthroughs in your company/career to mark/celebrate?
Apart from celebrating our 25th Anniversary this March, a fine achievement in its own right, we have also been lucky to overcome a few hurdles in the last few years, which lead us to believe that the current Recession is just another bump in the road!

In 2001 Denis was hit with serious viral heart failure, but made an amazingly speedy and 100% recovery. In 2005 Nicola was diagnosed with Cancer, while pregnant, but has also made a full recovery. In 2006 the offices at 17 Upper Baggot Street, were destroyed by fire, the week before Christmas. Following a lengthy refurbishment, the building was finally restored to its former condition, and we are back in our bright and airy offices, delighted to be where we have been based for the last 15 years.

Denis and Geraldine remember well what it was like to work through previous recessions, but although this is on a scale never seen before, their experience allows us to view the situation in a very practical manner. Having faced a number of hurdles in the last few years, challenges are very easy to handle and we relish working hard to be well placed for the recovery of the economy, when that eventually happens.

What do you like most about working in property?
The reason we are in this business is because of our clients.

We meet some amazing people, hear some wonderful life stories, and get to be part of some life changing decisions for families, businesses and even charities.

We approach this business with a very different attitude, and are mindful of the fact that we are there to help people. We have a huge sense of achievement when a deal is closed and our clients can say that the process has been handled in a way that made them, and perhaps their buyer or tenant, feel very comfortable indeed. This, and only this, helps our reputation to grow by word of mouth.

How did you get into the property business?
By accident and by birth! For Nicola and Sara, it was there from the moment they were born, so it was inevitable really.

What do you need a lot of to succeed in your speciality?
Patience

What do you dislike about working in property?
Some of the greed and impatience we witnessed over the boom years. It did not help then. It will not help now. Moderation is key.

What’s your view of the market at the moment?
There are plenty of people actually looking, as we have seen with properties that we have just put on the market.

They are hindered, in many cases by the banks, but there is money out there to spend, and people, when they see value, are actually buying.

At the moment, with liquidity in the market being so low, another phenomenon we are seeing gain popularity, is the onset of “Swapping”.

It has worked in some notable high profile sales in the last year, and is translating down the market. Examples that work particularly well are larger houses, where families have flown the nest. Where the house just wont sell in this market, it might be traded up to by a younger couple, with a smaller more manageable house to offer. Many of these deals are being conducted quietly, but we think that with the advent of “swapyourhome.ie” that this will become more widespread.

What do you think the Irish property business needs most?
Incentives – Unfortunately, buyers and investors with cash need to have their confidence restored, and in a significant way.

We see a number of our clients, waiting for something to happen in the market, before they will commit to buying on a recovered scale.

Having said that, we have a number of excellent acquisition instructions under way, which indicate that some of our more skilled investor clients are of the opinion that there is definite value out there.

On the residential side, we are seeing some movement, again with large numbers of people, who sold in the last year, now coming out of the woodwork to pursue properties of value. We think that these are taking their time, just in the short term, until any reductions in Stamp Duty are officially ruled out on April 7th A temporary reduction, or abolition of this rate, where it is adding nothing to revenue coffers at the present time, would make a significant difference to the market, and help with those last confidence issues!

Where in the world would your favourite properties be found and WHY?
Any European city. They know how to do Apartment living, with great amenities, storage and space. Our urban sprawl and the issues we now see with empty estates, across the “Suburbs” of Dublin, i.e. Westmeath, Wexford etc, all stem from our inability to look at city living with a European eye.

What are you favourite buildings in Ireland and WHY? (Houses, developments, commercial buildings etc.)
Houses – 31 Wellington Place, A truly stunning, detached and graceful property. Private, secure but centrally located, with over 6,000 square feet of living space.

Developments – Spencer Dock – Beautifully landscaped, very well finished, and with an array of sizes and shapes of units, is ideal in a modern city, to encourage a broad spectrum of residents. It also helps that this development is exceptionally well managed.

Commercial – There are far too many commercial buildings lying empty at the moment, and they lose their lustre and sheen as a result.

Do you have a good anecdote/story/joke with a property theme?
At a recent conference, one of our country colleagues recounted how a farmer had told him in recent months, that “the A##e is after falling out of de recession!”

What’s the most bizarre thing you’ve ever encountered in the world of property?
Two spectrums of society! There are those who have had large and publicly flaunted sums of money and assets in recent years, not willing to be flexible or to help those in need. Then there are those, very private and wealthy individuals, AND those who just get by, but who will go out of their way, particularly now, to help those around them. It’s the latter attitude that will get us through this.

We also see now a number of people who truly believe that they are the only people being effected by the global downturn. That really makes us gasp! The one positive thing you can say, is that we are ALL in this together!

Do you have a favourite book about property or about business in general?
Thoms Directory – best bit of gossip in years!
Where do you live/work and what’s it like in terms of a place to live/work and the property mix?

Denis and Geraldine have always lived 5 minutes walk from our offices. They know that to move in to the city was a decision met with derision 25 years ago, but now, as commuting becomes more expensive and difficult, and more and more people recognise the value of living so close to work, they are delighted to be where they are.

Sara lives off the South Circular Road, and similarly enjoys a stress free commute to work, on foot or by bike. Being young and not yet burdened with children, she and her fiancé enjoy a great social life, living so close to town, but also find now that they are regularly asked to put up guests!

Nicola lives in Stepaside with her husband and son, and loves the clean air and beautiful scenery, but finds the commute tedious at times. One day, she hopes to get closer to her parents in Dublin 4! Maybe, if prices stay competitive in the next few years.

What are the main issues facing that area?
Dublin 2, 4, 6 and 8 are all very well blended by way of social mix, and this is evident in the mornings, as you see mums and dads walking with kids to school. At weekends, families, couples and singles all enjoy living so close to town, with wide varieties of accommodation and individuals living side by side.

In Stepaside, it should be noted that the aggressive development of that part of the county over the years, has not been met with adequate amenities, schools etc. This is something that is already causing problems, as large numbers of families moved to the area in the last 5-10 years, and schools, facilities etc, have not followed.

Complete the following to make up your personal maxim –
The secret of happiness in the property world is the ability to look at the bigger picture!!!

Bergins

17 Upper Baggot Street

Dublin 4.

Tel: + 353 1 6603587/6603933

Fax: + 353 1 6602503

Email: info@bergins.ie

Website: www.bergins.ie

Quotes of the Week

2009-03-18T09:44:00.004Z

"Those new generation developers often ignored the rules of location, building quality and tenant need. They were driven by the mathematics of high volumes of floor space and achieving planning permission quickly. The product of much of their activities will remain empty and forlorn for a long time... Over the next year or so in Ireland my firm will be looking for mainly dull properties in excellent locations let at affordable rents to viable tenants and with generous car-parking." (Bill Nowlan, chartered surveyor.)

David Fitzsimons, chief executive of REI, said the decision to appoint a single agent was motivated by a lack of consistency and transparency displayed by many landlords in setting rents.

Quotes of the week

2009-02-17T07:44:00.006Z

"Renting is the new buying... An ironic consequence of the recent failures of finance-fuelled capitalism may well be to undermine forever the foundational faith in private property ownership as a source of wealth and freedom. Though 'ironic' doesn't quite do justice to such an outcome... We're living in a whiplash economy, brought to a sudden stop by a wall of fear... This is Ireland's first middle class recession - professionals are joining unskilled workers on the dole queues... Expect a lot of people formally-known-as-middle-class to 'downshift' from the mortgage-indebtedness of home ownership to the liability-freedom of renting." (Gerard O'Neill, Chariman, Amárach Research)

"The BER system is a poorly-timed arrival in the Irish property sector. SEI (Sustainable Energy Ireland) has not told the public that hundreds of assessors are busily carrying out assessments despite not having completed the national test. In a market estimated to cost consumers in excess of €70,000,000 annually, these people have been told they can work away and sit the test later. It is unacceptable that a State body can deem a test necessary and then ignore its own requirements at will. Under the current system, we believe that many properties may carry incorrect certificates and that the only people to benefit will be lawyers who will have a field day, from which SEI cannot expect to be exempt." (Simon Ensor of Sherry FitzGerald; IAVI National Council)

With a surprisingly high number of apartments and houses now selling at up to 50 per cent below the original asking price, one can only wonder if there is much scope for further falls. The huge readjustment in values already seen means that for the first time in years many of the apartments and houses on the market can prove self-financing for investors. With interest rates virtually on the floor and likely to fall again in March, rents are already outstripping mortgage payments, particularly at the lower end of the market. (Jack Fagan, The Irish Times)

"They [the golden 10] haven't done anything wrong. They should be proud of what they did because they were supporting the bank in its hour of need, and it probably supported them in their hour of need. Why would you hide it?" (Ulick McElvaddy)

"We have in the last week noticed some fresh investor activity, attracted by the reductions in prices and the buoyancy of the rental market in urban locations with good transport links." (Ken MacDonald, Hooke & MacDonald)

"If you are in the situation where a repossession is likely an estate agent is definitely worth talking to, they may be able to help find buyers for your property, they will have a good idea of what price your property is worth and therefore what price may be required so that it is ‘priced to sell fast’ as a protracted sale may have you working against deadlines which the court system can dictate." (Karl Deeter, Irish Mortgage Brokers, 'A Repossession Guide for Irish Homeowners')

“It tells me either that people are opting not to purchase now, or else the scheme has acted as a spur, in conjunction with Government’s wider efforts in recent months [through the bank guarantee and, more recently, recapitalisation], to ensure that Irish financial institutions have access to the normal liquidity and funding which they need to operate their day-to-day business and that they are beginning to re-occupy their traditional space in the mortgage market." (Minister of State for Housing, Michael Finnernan, TD)

“SEI does not have the required number of trained and tested assessors to manage this programme. While it correctly states that all of its registered assessors have passed a training course exam, that’s only half the story. SEI has not told the public that hundreds of assessors are busily carrying out assessments despite not having completed the national test. Instead, it has issued hundreds of individuals with ‘provisional’ permission to carry out assessments – subject to them sitting the required national test later this year.” (Simon Ensor, Sherry FitzGerald, IAVI National Council)

Quotes of the week

2009-02-13T08:18:00.003Z

“There is therefore likely to be an avalanche of new cases over the remainder of this year and next as we work through the recession. But we are now going through a recession of historic proportions. Many, if not most, borrowers are not to blame for their arrears“No-one gains from rows of empty shuttered houses. Patently, if the house is not going to sell, the order sought will not benefit either party. New market conditions demand new legal solutions.” Edmund Honohan, the master of the High Court.

“The agricultural land market has been propped up over the last 5 years by farmers and land owners who were replacing land as a result of development sales. So we believe that 2009 is likely to see further erosion in agricultural land values as there can be little doubt that the current crisis in development land will have a further knock-on affect on agricultural land values over the next couple of years”. Robert Ganly, Knight Frank.

“The number of properties that were on the market, but vendors withdrew, has increased by 46 per cent in January. In some cases, because interest rates have dropped, peoples’ holding costs have halved. Maybe people are happier to hold on to property now that pressure has eased.” Sherry FitzGerald MD Michael Grehan.

"Also required is a more timely data series tracking house price movements. While the PTSB/ESRI index is widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive price survey in Ireland, the lagging nature of the index means it is confusing for buyers during periods when property market cycles turn." Conor Gallagher, Douglas Newman Good.

"While the contraction in the investment area of the Irish economy has now firmly spread to all other sectors, the correction in construction activity, the instigator of the recession, shows little sign of easing," Goodbody economist Deirdre Ryan.

‘‘Based on the level of enquiries we’ve had, we expect to sell a good number of units but not all this weekend. I think the sales will happen over the next few weeks. From the huge number of phone calls we’ve received, it would appear people are responding to lower prices.” Ken MacDonald of Hooke & MacDonald.

Funky in Westport

2009-02-09T09:40:00.003Z

Wow, you gotta admire the marketing style for this mixed-use development in Westport, called Westpoint. The website was produced by Proactive, and unfortunately beyond the homepage that eye-catching design is not very prominent and it becomes a fairly stardard presentation.

The future of PropertyNews.com

2009-01-30T13:04:00.006Z

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

2009-01-30T09:16:00.003Z

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

2009-01-23T10:43:00.009Z

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

2009-01-16T10:00:00.015Z

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

2009-01-09T10:11:00.015Z

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

Quotes of the Week

2008-12-19T10:10:00.006Z

Week starting 15.12.2008

"Reflecting an imbalance similar to that observed in Spain, new home completions in Ireland have shrunk to an estimated 42,000 in 2008 from 78,000 in 2007. Looking ahead, we expect completions to plummet to 25,000 in 2009." Standard & Poor's, debt rating agency, The Irish Times, 19.12.2008

"There continues to be a widening rift in Irish banking with some lenders continuing to compete for mortgage business while others continue to sit on the sidelines." Frank Conway, Director of the Irish Mortgage Corporation, Irish Independent, 19.12.2008

"As we have witnessed in America during the 1980s, and as we are beginning to see in Ireland, overdevelopment can have a strongly adverse impact on the finances of developers, investors and lenders - not to mention national economies." Dr John McCartney, economist, former head of research with Lisney, The Irish Times, 18.12.2008

"Major reforms are on the way. We can look forward to change from what can be an exasperating rigmarole - for buyers and sellers taking up to seven weeks in and out of solicitors' offices just to buy an ordinary house or apartment - to possibly little more than five days." Pat Igoe - solicitor, The Irish Times, 18.12.2008

"That approach to housing was developer-driven and greed-based. It was fuelled, not by the housing needs of the people, but by the profit motive of developers and the avarice of banks and other lending institutions." Sinn Fein Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, The Irish Times, 18.12.2008

Quotes of the Week

2008-12-12T10:09:00.000Z

Week starting 8.12.2008

"Clearly, the fear of job loss is deterring people from making major long-term spending commitments such as house purchase." Austin Hughes, Economist, KBC Bank, Irish Independent, 10.12.2008

"The number of properties going off the market, either through sales or withdrawals, has been higher than the numbers coming onto the market every single month this year." Marian Finnegan, Chief Economist, Sherry FitzGerald, Sunday Business Post, 07.12.2008

"Buyers have disappeared and will only be tempted back when they see value to be had. Overall, this year investment property has probably dropped in value by over 30 per cent and has further to fall." John Moran, incoming managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle Ireland, Sunday Business Post, 07.12.2008

"The auction market as a method of sale has declined rapidly since its peak in 2006... This was to be expected because the changed market environment meant that best advice from auctioneers for the bulk of sales, especially this year, was the private treaty method." Paul Murgatroyd, Economist, Douglas Newman Good, Sunday Business Post, 07.12.2008

Quotes of the Week

2008-12-05T11:00:00.001Z

Week starting 01.12.2008

"Many potential buyers are trying to do the near impossible and predict the bottom of the market but, if a buyer purchases now, I would argue that they will have experienced the majority of the anticipated total price fall." Keith Lowe, Chief Executive, Douglas Newman Good, The Irish Times, 04.12.2008

"Spectacular. Depressing. Encouraging. It is encouraging because I believe we have finally reached the agonising bottom in terms of price. We are also facing the prospect of a lengthy period of very, very low interest rates." Ronan O'Driscoll, Director of New Homes at Savills, The Irish Times, 04.12.2008

"The combination of this rate cut and the recent reductions in the price of residential property, of up to 30%, bodes well for the re-alignment and reactivation of the residential market in the months ahead." Marian Finnegan, Chief Economist, Sherry FitzGerald Group, 04.12.2008

"What next year brings is new territory. If you are unfortunate to be made redundant it is difficult to envision where you can go. There is no development taking place, no land sales and the housing market has slowed down to a standstill." Alan Cooke, IAVI, The Irish Times, 05.12.2008

"The worst period of this recession will be between June 2008 and June 2009. I am cautiously optimistic there will be good omens in terms of global liquidity pre-Easter 2009." Mark FitzGerald, Chief Executive, Sherry FitzGerald, The Irish Times, 03.12.2008

"I think in early 2010 we should be able to see some light at the end of the tunnel!" Ann Hargaden, Director of Investment, Lisney, The Irish Times, 03.12.2008

"Property must now pay for itself from day one with returns based on assumptions on rental growth now heavily discounted. It's back to basics." Sean O'Neill, Head of Investments at DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, The Irish Times, 03.12.2008

"There is an old property cliché which says that "land values go up like a rocket and fall like a stone" and this seems to have been bourne out in Ireland over recent years." Bill Nowlan, Chartered Surveyor & Town Planner, The Irish Times, 03.12.2008

"There are builders in negative equity on sites. They borrowed more than they can dream of earning back on sites. Some are paying interest on the sites and some simply are not." Anonymous agent, The Irish Times, 03.12.2008

"The planning system was very inefficient. If you had paid, say, a million pounds for a site, there was a real temptation to take a short cut if there was resistance." Paddy Kelly, Developer, The Irish Times, 02.12.2008

"The knowledge to solve this problem does not reside in Tullamore, Donegal or Castleknock; it's probably not at the Cabinet table or even in the Dáil. It needs business people with business acumen, people who started with zero and know how to maintain a business." Sean Dunne, Developer, The Irish Times, 01.12.2008

Jones Lang LaSalle launch a new look website

2008-12-04T17:26:00.002Z

Jones Lang LaSalle has a brand new look to their website - what might be called by the cognoscenti, Web 2.0 in style. Having recently launched their jlltv.ie they are certainly one of the busiest property companies in Ireland in terms of marketing and profile raising. The animation sequence at the start, featuring bird's eye views of famous cityscapes, does not include Dublin - reflecting the fact that this is a localised version of the worldwide .com site.

It certainly looks fresh and up to date, but I'd wonder is it really the kind of style that a commercial property company needs for selling themselves.

Guess the name and win of magnum of champagne for your office

2008-11-28T15:40:00.003Z

The Property Week Limited started trading in Ireland in 2003. We called ourselves The Property Week because we started life as a newsletter summarising the week's residential property news and listings in a handy format for property professionals to keep up with what was happening in the market at a glance.

We were hardly even aware of there being a very important magazine of the same name in the UK, and because we were only involved with residential property it wouldn't have seemed a problem anyway. However, now that we have started monitoring the commercial property market, we do find the name becoming a problem.

After much deliberation we've finally chosen a new name and will be launching it in the new year. To celebrate we are running a little competition: the first person to guess the name correctly (entries via email to paul@propertyweek.ie) will receive a magnum of champagne & giant box of chocolates delivered to their office. (Our decision will be final, terms and condition apply and so on.) As we get closer to Christmas if we still haven't had a winner we'll start dropping big hints on the site.

Quotes of the Week

2008-11-28T10:00:00.001Z

Week starting 24.11.2008

"If one strips out all property lending, and deducts lending between financial entities too, credit growth to the rest of the economy is shrinking." Scott Rankin, analyst at Davy Stockbrokers, Irish Independent, 27.11.2008

"Given the extent of the adjustment in the property market and the pain being taken this year, coupled with decisive action by central banks to free up the liquidity situation, we expect the market to bottom out by 2009 and for activity levels to pick -up throughout next year, albeit at considerably lower values and volumes." Joan Henry, Head of Research at Savills, 26.11.2008

"Currently brokers are involved in the valuation process, we generally collect the valuation fee and order the valuation, we then receive the report from the valuer and then send it on to the bank. I would feel that this is wrong, mortgage brokers should actually not be part of the process at all." Karl Deeter, Irish Mortgage Brokers, 24.11.2008

"No-one really knows when the bottom is until after it's passed." Paul Murgatroyd, Economist, Douglas Newman Good, on just how far prices will fall next year, Sunday Tribune, 23.11.2008

"This year the Irish economy, the Irish property market and the Irish investor have been badly bruised. Looking forward to 2009, challenges undoubtedly remain, but if investors and the public can gain assurance from an alleviation in the level of market volatility, and the decisive action being taken by global central banks to safeguard the long-run health of economies, then the light cannot but be turned on at the end of the tunnel." Mary-Kate McGarry, Economist in the research unit at Savills, Sunday Business Post, 23.11.2008

"Fianna Fáil has governed deliberately in the interests of their friends, particularly property speculators, rather than in the best interests of the Irish people. The result was an unsustainable property bubble, the victims of which are the many thousands of young couples who are now paying huge mortgages on overpriced homes, living with the anxiety of failing jobs and negative equity." Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny TD, Fine Gael's 2008 National Conference, 22.11.2008

"Fortunately, I operate on my own. So I have not had to lay off staff. There are still people out there who will buy houses, but the vendor has to be realistic." Maura Donohoe, estate agent in Newbridge, Irish Independent, 22.11.2008

Quotes of the Week

2008-11-21T09:00:00.000Z

Week starting 17.11.2008

"There are people (investors) in the dressing room limbering up. While it will be difficult for the remainder of the year and into January we may see some transactions again in February or March." John Moran, incoming Managing Director of Jones Lang LaSalle, Irish Independent, 20.11.2008

"This is something which is likely to spread to other lenders and will have a massive impact on the mortgage market." Karl Deeter of Irish Mortgage Brokers, on KBC Homeloans saying it would now only provide mortgages for 80pc of the value of homes, Irish Independent, 19.11.2008

"If our housing boom-and-bust cycle is comparable to our European neighbours, then we can expect it to take a minimum of 3-5 years for the market to recover." Dr. Stephen Kinsella, University of Limerick, Daft Rental Report Q3 2008, 18.11.2008

"It is important to keep things in perspective. The 'irrational exuberance' of the eighteen months before the summer of 2007 was a serious aberration in terms of the longer term development of a sustainable housing market. The market is currently undergoing a significant correction." Northern Ireland Housing Executive’s Head of Research, Joe Frey, 18.11.2008

"The amount of effort and skill it takes to sell a property now makes more demand on the agent, so fees will creep up somewhat. But they will still have to be manageable for the seller to afford." Fintan McNamara, IPAV, Sunday Business Post, 16.11.2008

"People have to see that developers are down to their bottom line now....If the banks pass on this half per cent cut in interest rates, things might change, but a lot of developers are just about keeping their heads above water now." Brian Byrne, of Wexford firm Cleary Doyle, Sunday Business Post, 16.11.2008

"Given the extremely sharp contraction in residential construction, these figures show the existing stock of unsold houses could clear quickly, once impasses in mortgage lending are addressed and confidence among prospective house buyers returns." Martin Whelan, communications director of CIF, on the Homebond figures for unsold new homes, Sunday Business Post, 16.11.2008

Quotes of the Week

2008-11-14T10:00:00.001Z

Week starting 10.11.2008

"Our own surveys show that office rents are the only prime property sector to show a fall and that was down by only 4pc in the last quarter." Patrick Koucheravy, economist at CBRE, Irish Independent, 12.11.2008

"Commercial activity is now in the eye of the storm. In fact, the housing index bounced a bit but, essentially, still continues to trend sideways, indicating very low levels of activity." Ulster Bank economist Pat McArdle on its Construction PMI index, Irish Independent, 10.11.2008

"In more recent times it's been very hard to assess the market because nothing is selling. Although we still have a very strong residential sales department we decided we needed to plan for the future and that's how our new lettings service came about." Peter Kenny, Associate Director and head of city residential in Colliers Jackson-Stops, Sunday Tribune, 09.11.2008

"The Permanent TSB statistics, for instance, show that sales have dropped by around 9% this year. We've dropped prices by 9% in the past month to get deals done." Declan Cassidy, Managing Director of Gunne Residential, Sunday Tribune, 09.11.2008

"In the case of Irish investors, they probably decided to buy something nice a few years ago but it has now gone underwater and the banks want their money back. This is where we see the big pick-up in the market coming from." John Moran, Director of Capital Markets in Ireland for Jones Lang LaSalle, Sunday Business Post, 09.11.2008

Quotes of the Week

2008-11-07T10:00:00.000Z

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

Quotes of the Week

2008-10-31T13:00:00.000Z

Week starting 27.10.2008

"I believe when the recovery comes it will come quickly and will take many by surprise and will be similar to what we experienced in the last four recessions; property values will jump 10% to 15% and will then level out to grow at a far more modest rate for the subsequent years." Marcus Magnier, Head of Residential, Colliers Jackson-Stops, 30.10.2008

"We have seen collateral fall up to as much than 80pc. So the Irish market, to a certain extent, has basically lost contact with any bottom in some areas and some aspects." Peter Straarup, the chief executive of National Irish Bank's parent Danske Bank, Irish Independent, 30.10.2008

"Once things stabilise internationally and confidence returns locally, the market should get back on track, but it will be a much healthier and more structured market than heretofore. Every storm has an ending." Ken MacDonald, Hooke & MacDonald, 29.10.2008

"The economy, people having more employment, income and confidence, a perception that you needed to own your own home, the fact that more people came here to work; we had to deal with rental demand etc, so we had to build a lot of units." Annette Hughes of economic consultants DKM, on the factors that contributed to over development, Irish Independent, 28.10.2008

"There is little surprise in these figures which continue the pattern of recent months. Looking ahead, we expect this pattern to continue for some time as both consumer confidence and the economic outlook for the year ahead remain weak." Niall O’Grady, General Manager Business Strategy, permanent tsb, on the latest house price index, 27.10.2008

"The banks tend to appoint receivers on a Friday and that doesn’t give the developers much time to put together the required independent accounts over the weekend if they want to try for an examinership." Anonymous insolvency expert, Sunday Business Post, 26.10.2008

"Due to the low vacancy rate and the fact that over 80 per cent of the demand for office is focused on the city centre, only marginal falls in rental value may be seen there in the near-term, while there is more of a risk for suburban offices to see significant rental value reductions," James Mulhall, director of office agency at CBRE, Sunday Business Post, 26.10.2008

"The fear is that when one creditor takes a legal action, it will lead to a flood of similar claims by creditors who fear being left out if the developer goes under." Neil Callanan, Sunday Tribune, 26.10.2008

Please take our survey

2008-10-29T18:10:00.000Z

Quotes of the Week

2008-10-24T10:00:00.002Z

Week starting 20.10.2008

"I would say that over half the developers in Northern Ireland are waiting for a call (from the bank)" Brendan Cunnane, Construction and Property Group, on Taggart Holding's demise, The Irish Times, 24.10.2008

"Very reluctantly over the last number of months we've seen some very good people leave us through redundancy." Sherry FitzGerald chairman Mark FitzGerald, The Irish Times, 23.10.2008

"With the market in the doldrums, questions are being raised on why more detailed information on this sector is still not readily available to the market. How much is a house worth and who sets the price?" Pat Igoe, Solicitor, The Irish Times, 23.10.2008

"The property business has been cyclical since Adam was a boy. You have to expect ups and downs. But the up always comes." Ray Grehan, Glenkerrin Homes, Irish Independent, 22.10.2008

"There is now a widespread belief that the valuations of the properties which are held as security by the Irish banks are not realistic and do not reflect conditions in the property market." Bill Nowlan, Chartered Surveyor, The Irish Times, 22.10.2008

"The fact is that most first-time buyers don't need incentivising. All the available evidence suggests that they're holding off buying now because they're waiting on prices to level off." Brenda McNally, Sunday Tribune, 19.10.2008

"The overhang of housing stock is expected to take until at least the first half of 2010 to clear." Killian Jones, an analyst at Merrion Stockbrokers, Irish Independent, 18.10.2008

Quotes of the Week

2008-10-17T10:00:00.000Z

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

Quotes of the Week

2008-10-10T10:18:00.017Z

Week starting 06.10.2008

"The harsh dose of reality from the global credit crunch may be hard to stomach, but it was long overdue. And we will emerge the better for it at the end of this particular tunnel." Con Power, Irish Independent, 10.10.2008

"Despite the reasonably strong showing from the most recent statistics on planning permissions, I expect completions in Dublin to fall in 2009 based on the trends in new home starts." Geoff Tucker, economist with Hooke and MacDonald, Irish Independent, 10.10.2008

"Absolutely, it was there to be got. People were too greedy. They wanted too much. When demand slows down, the prices come down. Things have softened globally but we can live with that and we can still make a profit. I'm looking at the long term . . . This will build out over the next five years." David Agar, The Irish Times, 10.10.2008

"The banks were all afraid of losing market share, they clearly contributed to the situation by wanting to do that." Rory O'Donnell chairman, O'Donnell Sweeney Eversheds, on blaming the banks for the implosion of Ireland's property market, Irish Independent, 09.10.2008

"The first sign of recovery from the economic situation that faces us today will be six months after property prices stabilise." Ivan Yates, Chairman of Celtic Bookmakers and a former senior Fine Gael minister, The Irish Times, 09.10.2008

"Hindsight is, of course, a wonderful thing. Now that we're looking back on the past 10 years, you'd have to wonder how we didn't see the bust coming." Anne Dooley, Director of Winthrop Group, O2 WM Businesswoman of the Year, Irish Independent, 08.10.2008

"I propose that, for a specific nominated and non-extendable period of time, and with the objective of getting this massive oversupply sold, purchasers should be permitted to reclaim a significant portion (75 per cent in my view) of the VAT on their new home." Ronan O'Driscoll, Savills Hamilton Osborne King, on the budget containing measures to boost the property market, The Irish Times, 06.10.2008

"Payments have slowed. We're getting paid; nobody's not paying us, they're just taking longer to pay us. You've just got to manage your cash carefully. It has an effect obviously... Cash is absolutely king at the moment to everybody." Guy Hollis, Managing Director CBRE, Sunday Tribune, 05.10.2008

"There'll have to be a serious write-down, there's no two ways around it. It's the elephant in the room. When the auditors go in, all hell is going to break loose. I think there will be carnage." Anonymous, on bankers and property valuations, Sunday Tribune, 05.10.2008

"Irish banks are owed €110bn by the property and construction sector. It accounts for €60 of every €100 that residents have on deposit. As 28% of all borrowings, it is significantly greater than the 25% construction proportion of bank lending in Japan when the banks crashed there in 1989." Justine McCarthy, Sunday Tribune, 05.10.2008

Quotes of the Week

2008-10-03T12:49:00.012Z

Week starting 29.09.08.

"The price decline originated in the Dublin market during the summer months of 2006 however it was almost twelve months later that the price reductions truly spread to the rest of the country. All areas of the country are now enduring significant price falls with the upper end of the market most affected to date." Marian Finnegan, Chief Economist, Sherry FitzGerald Group, 02.10.2008

"The dearth of transactions relative to recent years is evidence of the lack of demand for investment properties in a market where bank funding has effectively dried up and where buyers remain cautious." CBRE investment expert Sean O'Brien, Irish Independent, 01.10.2008

"Of the €12bn invested in property by Irish investors last year, €10bn was invested abroad. The Government's priority should be to keep that money at home." Martin Whelan of the Construction Industry Federation on commercial property, Irish Independent, 01.10.2008

"The amount of capital being made available in the current market is being strangled by the financial institutions who are refusing to lend to developers to finish out existing development or to purchasers who which to purchase units." Ger O' Rourke, Chief Executive Chieftain Group, Irish Independent, 01.10.2008

"At the end of 2007, the real prices of secondhand houses had returned to levels that may be explained by the fundamentals, while those of new houses were still overpriced by about 7 per cent in real terms." European Commission staff report, The Irish Times, 01.10.2008

"There is activity in the property market, but it’s at the lower end. As you move up the price scale, things get much quieter." John O’Sullivan, Lisney, Sunday Business Post, 28.09.2008

"Sovereign wealth funds will become one of the most significant investors in the world’s commercial property markets over the next few years. We believe that some of these funds might consider investing in Ireland, but not while the rate of stamp duty is at 9 per cent." Marie Hunt, director of research at CBRE, Sunday Business Post, 28.09.2008

How bad is this going to get?

2008-09-29T14:06:00.001Z

Could anyone ever have foreseen such a series of headlines 18 months ago?

Quotes of the Week

2008-09-26T10:00:00.001Z

Week starting 22.09.08.

"It's very plain that the Government has been caught entirely flat-footed. Their flirtation with the property boom and the bubble in the property sector has seriously damaged the capacity of the economy to cope with more difficult times." Richard Bruton, Fine Gael finance spokesman, The Irish Times, 26.09.2008

"By slightly amending existing legislation, the Government could help stimulate this sector of the housing market by providing interest free loans of up to 20% of the value of the home for five years." Alan Redmond, IPAV President, 26.09.2008

"No lifeline should be thrown to first-time buyers. If there is a package, it will only end up being a bail-out for builders and will be of no benefit to first-time buyers." Karl Deeter, Financial Adviser, Irish Independent, 26.09.2008

"You are right to be sorry that you didn't sell in early 2006 when you could have. And you are right to be resentful of your neighbour who did. And no doubt, you would give anything to swipe the smug smile off his beaming face." Isabel Morton, The Irish Times, 25.09.2008

"It's very poor, with the lower priced properties moving quicker but not in any great volume. However, there is no sign of the market bottoming out at-all, at-all." Tom O'Higgins, RE/MAX Property Choice, on Ballybrack Co Dublin, The Irish Times, 25.09.2008

"The economic situation and lack of availability of development funding has had the effect of slowing down some new office developments and requiring that they be planned more rigorously and phased into the market. This should slow down development activity and may prevent an oversupply of office accommodation." Deirdre Costello, Jones Lang LaSalle, The Irish Times, 24.09.2008

"It is a great opportunity to get into the market at the bottom of the price cycle. We have seen a lot of movement in the last two weeks as a result of reduced prices and we would take the view that this has bottomed out now." Ken MacDonald, Hooke & MacDonald, Sunday Business Post, 21.09.2008

"As a result, you are probably looking at even better value for an investor’s point of view, in terms of what is out there in the market than would certainly have been the case." Geoff Tucker, Economist with Hooke & MacDonald Commercial, Sunday Business Post, 21.09.2008

"The very low rate of decline in July was clearly an aberration from the trend over the past few months. August re-establishes that trend and it's likely to continue through the rest of this year." Permanent TSB's Niall O'Grady, Irish Independent, 20.09.2008

Quotes of the Week

2008-09-19T11:30:00.000Z

Week starting 15.09.08.

"Consumer confidence is shot for lots of reasons, house prices will fall further and no one in their right mind is going to buy a house in the current environment". Jim Power, Friends First economist, The Irish Times, 19.09.2008

"It has been one hell of a ride since The Irish Times launched Ireland's first property supplement 20 years ago this month. In that time the property industry has changed the face of Ireland and brought enormous wealth to a great many people." Jack Fagan, The Irish Times, 18.09.2008

"It seemed as if everyone, knew the price of their own house. For a nation so famously reticent about money matters, we were suddenly well able to tell all and sundry what our house was worth now and what we paid for it. Not that it was professionally valued or anything but because it was here in black and white in the auction results or in the asking prices." Bernice Harrison on 20 years of The Times Property Supplement, The Irish Times, 18.09.2008

“The market is extremely challenging but we have a fantastic product in a superb location right in the heart of the city – it will clearly take longer to sell than it would a year ago but we’re confident because of the uniqueness of the product we will certainly sell them.” Michael O’Flynn, O'Flynn Construction, on the 17-storey Elysian tower which opened in Cork, The Irish Times, 18.09.2008

It was "completely incongruous" and he warned against allowing "the desired financial return of any developer to be a valid planning consideration." Dermot Desmond, Businessman, on Treasury Holdings' plans to build a 35-storey, 152-metre hotel in the Docklands, Irish Independent, 17.09.2008

"The forthcoming Budget should revert to the way mortgage interest was dealt with 20 years ago in this country, whereby one was allowed full relief on interest paid on principal mortgage at marginal rate... this would force people to buy houses and would have an additional benefit in terms of social stability as opposed to having a renting culture, which is the way matters have drifted." Michael Gilmartin, head of commercial lending at IIB Bank, The Irish Times, 17.09.2008

"Of the €12 billion invested in commercial property by Irish investors last year, €10 billion was invested abroad. The Irish economy could do with a slice of that €10 billion at the moment. At the same time, foreign investors are not investing in commercial property in Ireland." Tom Parlon, Director General of the Construction Industry Federation, Sunday Business Post, 14.09.2008

"The worst that can happen is that it doesn’t sell and then you can simply try again in early 2009." Michael Grehan, Sherry FitzGerald, Sunday Business Post, 14.09.2008

Quotes of the Week

2008-09-12T06:00:00.002Z

Week starting 08.09.08.

"The housing market is still in the throes of correction and it may well be 2009 before signs of stability emerge... Yet the monthly fall in July was only 0.2pc and the annual pace of decline also slowed, this time to 9.4pc from 9.7pc. As a result, Bank of Ireland projects an 8pc fall for the full year." Bank of Ireland chief economist Dan McLaughlin, Irish Independent, 12.09.2008

"It might start with the parent saying, 'that's too much, I wouldn't pay that'. Then the surveyor will have a go and advise them to drop a bit more and finally, just as they are about to sign the contract, the solicitor might say, 'tell them you're just about to sign the contract, but you want €20,000 off'. It's heart-breaking. For the vendor that is." Steven Manek, Douglas Newman Good, The Irish Times, 11.09.2008

"For the first time ever in Ireland the majority of homes being purchased by single people are being bought by women. The trend was heading this way before prices started falling but it appears to have accelerated considerably." Suzanne McGuinness of IFG Mortgages, Irish Independent, 11.09.2008

"If we get it wrong at the planning stage we're fighting a losing battle on other fronts. I think planning in some authorities is lacking coherence and consistency at national, regional and local level." John O'Connor, Chairman of An Bord Pleanala, Irish Independent, 10.09.2008

"We're probably going to Government at the worst time in the last 20 years and there's no doubt about that and that's a disadvantage for us." Brendan Kenny, Limerick Regeneration chief executive, The Irish Times, 10.09.08

"It will be a sad day for Dublin if one of its most attractive inner suburbs is destroyed in the fashion proposed here, if this is allowed to go ahead." Former PD leader Des O'Malley on developer Seán Dunne's plans for a 37-storey tower on the site of the former Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels in Ballsbridge, The Irish Times, 10.09.2008.

"The key issues facing first time buyers in the property market are: the lack of ability to obtain an appropriate level of finance and the lack of confidence in the market regarding when property prices will bottom out." Eoin Whelan, Director in Tax at BDO Simpson Xavier, Irish Independent, 09.09.2008.

“However, the other indices painted a somewhat more encouraging picture. Housing activity has to be curtailed to allow the supply overhang to be worked off and starts have, indeed, been minimal in recent months. The housing PMI index has oscillated around 25 for much of this year indicating that activity continues to decline but that the rate of decline has stopped accelerating." Pat McArdle, Chief Economist at Ulster Bank, 08.09.2008.

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so large and so interwoven in our financial system that a failure of either of them would cause great turmoil in our financial markets here at home and around the globe." Hank Paulson, US treasury secretary, The Irish Times, 08.09.2008

"A four-bed period home off the South Circular Road could have cost up to €1.8 million when the market was at its height; now it’s down to €1.2 million or €1.3 million. If you are looking for a home to trade up to, somewhere that you plan to stay for a long time, that has to be seen as good value." Felicity Fox, Sunday Business Post, 07.09.2008.

Quotes of the Week

2008-09-05T05:25:00.002Z

Week starting 01.09.08.

"Let's remember this about the housing market - it is a market like any other market that is going through a process of adjustment. That adjustment has to take place."
Brian Lenihan in The Irish Times, 05.09.08.

"Affordability has improved a bit, but people are always reluctant to take the plunge while they see prices falling and while there are concerns about employment and the economy generally." John Sheehan, NCB, in The Irish Times, 04.09.08.

"There are two problems with this market - lack of money and lack of confidence . . . If we can provide one, we might be able to help the other”
Ray Grehan, Glenkerrin Homes in The Irish Times, 04.09.08.

"One of the biggest problems facing first time buyers and those trying to trade up is the banks' increasingly tighter lending. This is one way the Government could help borrowers, with a 'right-to-buy' scheme of shared ownership."
Joan Burton, Irish Independent, 03.09.08.

"We are sticking with our view that prices will fall by 30pc from peak levels. Anecdotal evidence points to the view that prices have fallen significantly further than 12pc."
Dermot O’Leary, Goodbody Stockbrokers, Irish Independent 02.09.08.

"Current trends can be attributed to a range of factors including consumer expectations of further house price reductions, the uncertain outlook on the economic and interest rate fronts, as well as the increased cost of funding for lenders."
Pat Farrell, Chief Executive of IBF, Irish Times, 02.09.08 on mortgages drawdown rates.

“Client companies who experienced difficulty in recruiting suitably qualified and experienced staff during the heady days of the market have also, with the firm's blessing, taken the opportunity to recruit from within the firm.”
Savills HOK statement in relation to staff being hired by its commercial customers, Sunday Tribune, 31.08.08.

"I don't see any quick fix over the next few months, and it may even get worse next year . . . but if investors can afford to ride out the next 18 months, then there will be growth once the market comes back to some sort of normality and the banking crisis starts to ease."
Brian Leslie, Managing Director of Primafinance.ie, Sunday Tribune, 31.08.08.

Energy ratings appearing on property brochures

2008-09-04T13:03:00.003Z

We're just starting to notice a few 2nd-hand properties being advertised with their energy rating. Because this will become a significant factor in the valuation of property we will of course be including it in our comparables data. It will appear in the Additional Information column for now.

This Month's Top Headlines

2008-09-02T16:12:00.004Z

What stories have you been reading. The following were the most clicked-on headlines on PropertyWeek.ie in August.

It is interesting to observe that the overwhelming sentiment of the most popular headlines are negative, which is both consistent with the current gloomy economic outlook and affirms the notion that bad news sells.

Can positivity within the property industry and media break the downward property spiral?

1. HOK gives blessing to firms to take its staff in cost-cutting bid

ONE of the country's leading estate agents, Savills HOK, has given its blessing to the recruitment of staff by its own commercial customers as it attempts to reduce staff numbers in the face of the property slowdown.

2. Property market in 'crisis' as homes sell at discount
THE property market is in "crisis" with homes increasingly being sold at below-market asking prices, according to estate agents and auctioneers.

3. Estate agents close under market pressure

Newer agents take the biggest hit while established companies drop salaries and diversify into rentals and commercial property.

4. House prices still have long way to fall
FAT cats certainly won't be rushing out to buy property over the next year-and-a-half.

5. What's going to happen to property in 2009
The 'Sunday Tribune' surveyed a wide range of property experts and found broad agreement: things are going to get worse.

6. Property prices set to plunge 40pc from their peak
THE housing market is going through a drastic correction at the moment which will see prices fall as much as 40pc from their peak, according to a survey of economists.

7. RE/MAX 'Super Auction' of cut-price homes to woo first-time buyers
Currently, Re/Max is planning a pilot 'Super Auction', to be held in Galway on 12 September. If this is successful, the company plans to expand the concept nationwide.

8. Builders' holidays are all over
THE BUILDERS' holidays have turned out to be more "staycation" than vacation this year. For many construction workers and tradespeople, the focus is now on surviving the months ahead.

9. Repossession bids surge by one-third
THERE has been a sharp jump in the number of cases where banks are seeking the possession of homes and businesses.

10. New station to cut city travel times
A NEW railway station offering 25 daily trains into the heart of Dublin will open today.

A pattern of price drops is establishing itself

2008-09-01T06:37:00.006Z

A friend of mine put his apartment on the market some months ago. The agent said that during the boom he would have got well over €400,000 for it, but as things were he should put it on at €370,000, which he did. A few months later when no one had been to even see the property, the agent suggested dropping to €340,000 which my friend agreed to without hesitation. A few people came to view it at that price but no offers came in. My friend contacted the agent the next month and suggested a further drop to under €300,000, which the agent did happily. In the end, the apartment sold for just shy of that.

We all know this phenomenon is making a bad situation much worse. Vendors' expectations are still too high. Agents are still keen to take instructions and so are being over-optimistic about what they can achieve - overpromising at the start knowing they can then talk the price down when the vendor sees no offers coming in. Buyers are responding predictably to the signs. They see loads of price drops, and even see that nearly every property that comes on the market is now having its price brought down after a short time. So they're waiting before they even arrange a viewing. And with the number of successive price drops they're seeing on individual properties around them, they're expecting the pattern to be repeated across the board, and so a new pattern is created irrespective of how realistic the starting price was: if you haven't dropped the price on your home a couple of times at least, buyers aren't recognising value for money.

Pricing has become a nightmare for both agents and vendors. Commentators have been saying for some time now that agents need to manage vendor expectations and make sure they list their properties at realistic levels. They seem to have failed to do so for a long time and compounded that by competing with other agents for instructions on the basis of fantasy list prices rather than on actual service and sales skill. Vendors' greed is certainly a big factor too, but now even if both are curtailed, it seems you NEED to overprice at the start of the marketing in order to allow for the inevitable price drops that suggest the price is value for money.

Quotes of the Week

2008-08-29T09:09:00.000Z

“The problem [negative equity] will be "much more sustained" this time around, because the average loan-to-value ratio is so much higher now than in the late 1980s, when lenders were far more conservative in their approach, and the correction in houses prices is so much more severe”. The Irish times, 29.08.08.
"[negative equity is] not a nice feeling. If you ever want to experience it, go into the back yard and set €50,000 on fire and you'll have a similar emotion." Karl Deeter, The Irish Times, 29.08.08.
“The builder’s holidays have turned out to be more "staycation" than vacation this year. For many construction workers and tradespeople, the focus is now on surviving the months ahead, according to anecdotal reports from construction workers' unions”. Irish Times, 27.08.08.

Profile Park promotion

2008-07-31T13:32:00.005Z

In conjunction with Newstalk, Profile Properties is running a promotion at the moment in which you, 3 colleagues, plus partners, could take off to London in your own private jet to watch Leinster take on the Wasps in the Heineken Cup. Stay in an exclusive London hotel and enjoy dinner for 8 at one of the city's renowned restaurants!

For your chance to qualify Play Profile Park's online rugby challenge, visit www.profilepark.com

Tune into Newstalk 106-108 fm throughout the competition to find out if you're one of four finalist teams. Ger and Claire will host the final showdown live on The Breakfast Show August 15th.

Quotes of the Week

2008-06-27T08:47:00.002Z

"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

2008-06-20T08:39:00.002Z

‘‘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

2008-06-13T08:25:00.001Z

"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

2008-06-06T16:01:00.005Z

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

2008-06-06T07:51:00.002Z

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

Advertise commercial property the trade way

2008-06-04T12:16:00.011Z

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Quotes of the Week 30/05

2008-05-30T07:42:00.005Z

“Hitting the very bottom of the curve is near impossible but we know the market has taken a hit. No one knows how far that hit is going to go but it won't last forever.” – Gary McCausland, property developer.

“The housing market remains critical to prospects in Ireland on an 18-month view. At least we are confident that we are nearer the end than the beginning. Residential investment as a percentage of the economy will be down to early 1990s levels by yearend 2008, and house prices have corrected some distance. But we do not see a bottom in 2008. It is vital that new housing sales overtake house completions. That inflection point will probably be reached some time in H1 2009.” – Davy Stockbrokers.

“House prices may fall 10.7% on average (12 months over 12 months) in 2008 followed by a further decline of 7.2% in 2009.” – Davy Stockbrokers

‘‘The adversely changed circumstances of the current private housing market to that of 2005/ 2006, when the bids were submitted, along with the significant additional costs of increased apartment sizes and new energy regulations, have rendered the whole concept of using the sale of private housing units to fund social and affordable housing and community services along with a balancing site purchase figure, unsustainable in the current market, despite the best efforts of everybody involved.” - Bernard McNamara.

"It wasn't just about rebuilding a few flats, it was about social regeneration" - Peter Ward, Chairman, O'Devaney Gardens Regeneration Board.

"About 10 days ago I was asked to go and see Ciaran McNamara in Dublin City Council, and he said to me 'we don't believe these PPPs are progressing, we've spent €27m and got nothing for it and we want to go a different route" - Bernard McNamara.

”We're going to have a third- or fourth-level campus, and we commissioned a design for a general hospital, so if people came to us they'd see how much land it would take up. This is not a dormitory town, it's an economic region." - David O'Connor, Fingal county manager.

Better late than early, when it comes to buying in our market.

2008-05-29T08:22:00.002Z

Our anonymous buyer is wrapping up his house hunting activities.

Just over 6 months since I started viewing houses in earnest, I’ve made the decision to stop. It’s not what estate agents want from potential buyers at this time but I feel it’s the right choice for me to make. The way I feel about it is that not buying over the last half a year has saved me a lot of money – so why stop now?

I very nearly bought at the start of 2008, convinced that anything less than the asking price was a victory for me. Five months on, I’ve recently viewed a better house two doors down from that one I nearly bought, priced 50K lower. I’m confident that if the house in between were to come on the market at the end of this year, I’d stand to make a similar saving if I were to buy it then.

So isn’t that enough: postpone rather than pull out altogether? Wait until the end of 2008 and save 100K or approximately 20% of the value of a home? Maybe not when 2009 now looks gloomy from an economic perspective and when people have started talking about the possibility of a return to the depressing 80’s again.

This is where confidence comes in. Not many people in my shoes have confidence in the market at the moment, it seems to me, and the result is that we’re hesitating. But it could be worse than that. While many involved in the Irish property industry will point to the national media’s scaremongering as a cause of this, I must add that a lot of the industry’s own commentary has not helped. Though many responsible property professionals and economists carefully judge what they say, large sections of the industry simply churn out positive opinion and tell us all the time that “now is a good time to buy” or that “things are beginning to look better”. When these assessments are then later being revised and re-revised downwards, all such comments lose all credibility and damage buyers’ perception of the entire property market.

Additionally, the property market is feeling the effects of being touted as a good investment over the last decade. For most people in this country, including many first time buyers, purchasing property is a form of speculation, not a judgement based on lifestyle and affordability. Clearly, it would be better for the market were this not the case but after so many years of emphasising the potential value of the assets we live in, it’s impossible to shift the goalposts now.

My decision is basically an admission that I don’t think I’m capable of accurately judging when the market is going to bottom out and that I no longer trust anyone to tell me when that’s about to happen. The result is that I’ll have to judge the right time to buy from historical data such as TSB/ESRI indices which will invariably be a month or so out of date. The downside of this is that I won’t get prices when they’re at their lowest as the publication of such good news will see the rapid re-entry of people like me into the market and cause prices to spike shortly after the bottom has been reached. Still, it’s better to be a couple of months late then a year or so early … in this context.

And even then, I wonder could my nerves falter for other reasons, more about the panic of it all, the frenzy. What this country needs is a calm, stable market so that buyers such as myself can act rationally based on facts and figures. I would even go so far as to suggest a moratorium by the industry on economic predictions and that it just let people get on with the business of buying and selling their homes.

Another wedding invite?

2008-05-27T12:28:00.004Z

My heart skipped a beat on Monday when I was picking up the mail and noticed the rough artisan-style cream coloured envelope that can only mean one thing - another wedding invitation.

To my interest (and relief), the envelope actually contained an elaborate invitation to attend the opening of Chesterfield at Cross Avenue - a new development from Avenue Homes, a subsidiary of The Naus Group, with HTMOR as the selling agent.

The invitation has a lone, real leaf affixed on the cover - one suspects from the gardens of Chesterfield themselves. It invites me to come and experience "life in the gardens of Chesterfield"- not to a mere new homes launch but a "garden party event".

With the location in Blackrock it's reasonable to expect an element of style to the campaign, but this is another example of just how far developers and their agents are prepared to go to get the attention of the house buying public. When business is slow, marketing needs to work twice as hard, as is evidenced also by the Chesterfield website which is currently putting the following proposal: "You know what you want from Blackrock living, so why not tell us?"

Newlyn's new approach to area information

2008-05-27T08:55:00.003Z

Newlyn's brochures and marketing are always something of a departure, but the Tyrrells Brook brochure is very dramatically so in that it is not just an elaborate design feature that makes it stand out, but fundamental content.

All property brochures have sections about the local area and the amenities that might attract buyers to it, but they are usually quite stale, sometimes even just lists of shops, gyms etc.

For their Tyrrells Brook brochure, Newlyn approached a number of local people and with their permission photographed them in their place of work or at home and spoke to them about their thoughts on living and/or working in Edenderry.

The first six spreads of the brochure (after the opening landscape photograph) are given over to the portraits and words of the local people - including a teacher, a publican, a rugby player. The quality of the presentation is top-notch.

The effect is to give you a great sense of the place and a much more realistic one, not quite warts and all, but as close to it as a piece of marketing is ever going to go. It has the feel of the Seasame Street song, "People in Your Neighbourhood", and almost makes you look forward to meeting them when you're next walking down the street.

Why did nobody think of taking this approach before?

Design Factory designed. Penhire wrote. Ken Walsh took the photographs.

GAA teams sponsored by developers

2008-05-26T14:10:00.003Z

Recently I have noticed that the number of GAA county teams that are sponsored by developers and builders, seem to be on the increase. Menolly (Meath), Ballymore (Wicklow & Roscommon) and McCabe (Louth) are an indication of this. Furthermore building products and services companies, such as Tegral (Kildare), Kingspan (Cavan) & FKM (Monaghan) are also involved in sponsoring teams.

Quotes of the Week 23/05

2008-05-23T06:38:00.002Z

"I am delighted to be able to confirm that we certainly are at a better place than when we discussed the matter last October" - Ken MacDonald, Hooke & MacDonald

"The over-supply of available property is likely to mean that rents will continue to fall and at a time when main costs of living such as groceries and energy are rising rapidly, the news that rents are falling should be a welcome relief for renters." - Ronan Lyons, economist, Daft.ie

"It is far from clear what the effects of the NCA's media intervention in the house sales controversy will be. It is quite possible that attempts at resolving this issue in the full glare of the media may turn out to be counterproductive if further remedial action is not taken." - Fintan McNamara, IPAV.

"Millions of euro have been spent on ground testing, preparatory work and demolition on these sites, and much of the original housing has been knocked. This is going to leave parts of Dublin looking like Beirut." - Christy Burke, Sinn Féin group leader.

"The waiting lists for social and affordable housing in Dublin are the highest in the country and this deal collapse, due to Cowen's property crash, means that these people face an uncertain future" - Terence Flanagan, housing spokesman, Fine Gael.

"The adversely changed circumstances of the current private housing market to that of 2005/2006 when the bids were submitted, along with the significant additional costs of increased apartment sizes and new energy regulations, have rendered the whole concept of using the sale of private housing units to fund Social and Affordable Housing and Community Services along with a balancing site purchase figure, unsustainable in the current market, despite the best efforts of everybody involved." - Letter from Bernard McNamara & Co. to the Dublin City Council.

"We take the view that employment in construction will be almost 50,000 off its quarter one 2007 peak by the end of 2009." - FAS.

‘‘There are enormous opportunities for both HPEG [Beijing-based Heydey Property Enterprise Group] and Bannon clients in the Chinese market” - Neil Bannon, managing director, Bannon Commercial.

"It is necessary to have restrictions while construction is going on but I would like to see a more permanent solution, to make the city centre a much friendlier place to do business" - John Henry, chairman, Dublin Transportation Office.

Auctioneering signs and fines

2008-05-21T07:47:00.006Z

In these lean times, when estate agents are keeping a closer eye on the bottom line, one cost that has come under increased scrutiny is the amount being spent on litter fines handed out for the erection of signage.

Alan Redmond, Redmond Auctioneers and president of the IPAV told us: “In recent times the local authorities have received many complaints because when times are harder and you’re trying to sell properties, it’s bad enough, but then being fined for just trying to do your work makes it even tougher.”

The two main instances where estate agents are found to be in breech of the act are when signs are placed at the entrance to estates rather then at the house in question and in rural areas where directional signs are placed at junctions. The punishment for breaking the litter act is a €150 fine, which, if not paid, will turn into a summons and possible prosecution.

To be exact, the litter act of 1997 says:

“19.

—(1) Where any structure or other land, door, gate, window, tree, pole or post is in or is visible from a public place, a person who is not the owner, occupier or person in charge thereof shall not—

( a ) exhibit or cause to be exhibited thereon any article or advertisement,

or

( b ) carry out or cause to be carried out any defacement thereof by writing or other marks,

unless the person is authorised in advance to do so in writing by such owner, occupier or person in charge or by or under any enactment.”

So signs cannot be erected on local authority lands and if erected at the entrance to a housing estate, the permission of the management company must be sought. Though the act states that the Gardai and local authorities have a joint role in enforcing litter standards, our enquires have shown no evidence that Gardai deal with the matter. Instead, they seem to have collectively kicked the matter to touch, allowing the local authorities to deal with the problem through their litter wardens.

One of the main issues raised among estate agents relates to the differing levels of enforcement of the litter act. Some Dublin agents have told us that they tend to receive warnings rather than fines while Michael Leyden, from Leyden Auctioneers in Ennis, who raised the matter on Joe Duffy's liveline last week, told us that he pays over €5,000 per annum in accumulated litter fines. He added that: “they’re down on you straight away around here but sometimes I go to Dublin by Loughrea, Ballinasloe and Athlone and by that route there are loads of signs up for months and months and nothing seems to be done about it.”

Leyden seems to be unlucky to be sharing a county with a particularly active environmental section. Last November, following the successful prosecution of two estate agents, Clare County Council put out a press release in which Cyril Feeney, Senior Executive Engineer with the Environment Section, said: "these successful prosecutions are a timely reminder to Auctioneers and Estate Agents of the implications of illegal advertising signs, which is contravention of the Litter Pollution Acts 1997-2003." Going a step further, Councillor Tommy Brennan, Chair of the Environment Emergency Services & Consumer Protection Strategic Policy Committee said "This [the prosecutions] is another success story for Clare County Council in eradicating litter in our County and the message must go out that it is an offence to litter and you will be prosecuted."

However, for estate agents, particularly those operating in rural areas, these littering offences are vital to business. Leyden explains that: “We have to put up a directional sign or an arrow sign pointing up a laneway or onto a secondary road or else no-one can find the place. We put that sign up at a t-junction or a crossroads and that’s where we’re getting fined. Of course, then the person selling the house is down on top of us – ‘you’ve no signs, how can you sell my house when you’ve no signs up about it’. When we tell them that they have to be prepared to pay €150 every week, they don’t believe us.”

According to Seamus Ahern, Administrative Officer in the Environmental Services Section of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council, litter wardens issue fines for any signs that they come across and then 21 days is allowed to pay the fine. He added: “We could take a direct prosecution but it’s rarely we do it just for a sign. The fine is incentive enough to take it down but generally we find they just move the sign to the property in question.”

Tony Maher from Kildare Tidy Towns has a slightly different take on things. “Where I’m coming from [a tidy towns point of view] it’s like a cancer, it spreads. If you get a load of auctioneer signs, the next thing you get is car sales signs, furniture signs, shops, anybody that wants to do business can nail up a sign … the bottom line is that when you see a sign up outside an estate and the house is in half a mile, they’re not advertising the house, they’re just saying ‘look at me, I’m great, I’ve this house for sale’. They put up the signs in the property to sell the property, they put up the signs on the main road to advertise themselves, not the property. There’s lots of other means of doing it, there’s publications, radio, internet.”

Interestingly, when discussing the standards of enforcement of this ‘cancer’, he added that “I’ve heard that sometimes if they get overwhelmed in the [environmental] office, the manager or the director of service will pull it. It’s quite common in Kildare for GAA summons to get written up and then pulled. They’ve prosecuted GAA people and when it gets to the office they tear up the prosecution.”

So is the number of fines being received simply a combination of the negative public perception of the auctioneering business and local council’s belief that the industry is awash with money? Michael Leyden certainly sees it that way: “The funny thing about it is there’s a sign in West Clare, a roadside directional sign belonging to the council themselves, that’s been pointing the wrong way for six months. It’s something that’s obvious and should be corrected straight away but they never see that. I’m someone trying to make a living, it’s a part of my livelihood but they see it as a soft touch, a money making exercise.”

He adds that: “We’re very careful about where we put the signs, we don’t have low signs, and we don’t like to cause a nuisance or obstruction. Sites are not made unattractive. They’re not unappealing and the main thing is that they’re not there forever; they’re not a permanent structure. They’re just temporary while a place is for sale and then ‘sale agreed’ goes up on it for ten days and that’s it and it’s removed.”

By all accounts the current regulations on this matter seem here to stay. Alan Redmond conceded: “I don’t think they’ll look at changing it in any way, they just treat signs of any substance as litter. I suppose they have a job to do but I think that certain exceptions should be allowed to the rule.”

Redmond adds that some people seem satisfied to operate within the status quo: “You could be fined for putting the sign up but you could get a couple of weeks out of it so they just treat it as a cheap form of advertising or marketing. Paying €150 for two weeks of prominent roadside advertising could be viewed as a pretty cheap form of marketing.”

Another tactic used by estate agents is the 'my neighbour's house is for sale' sign for which a token rent is paid to a roadside neighbour of a property being sold.

Knight Frank website

2008-05-16T10:00:00.002Z

The not so old Ganly Walters / Knight Frank website has been replaced with a new-look site exhibiting all the latest web design thinking:

Quote of the Week 08/05

2008-05-09T08:49:00.013Z

"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.

Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan TD gives an initial indicator of his thoughts on stamp duty.

2008-05-08T16:08:00.003Z

This morning, on RTE’s Morning Ireland programme, the new Minister for Finance, Mr Brian Lenihan TD gave an insight into opinions on Stamp Duty.

When it was put to Lenihan that his predecessor, Taoiseach Brian Cowen was widely criticised for ‘dithering’ on stamp duty, Lenihan responded by saying “let’s be clear about this question. 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. There was a problem with stamp duty - there was no progressive element in the stamp duty structure.

When the interview suggested to Lenihan that the market ceased to function for about six months due to his inactivity on stamp duty, he received an interesting response.

“No, let’s be clear about this. 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. As you know, most of our partners in the European Union have very substantial property taxes on private residential property. We don’t. We have a transactions tax called stamp duty. What my predecessor, An Taoiseach, did was he reformed that system in the last budget and made it quite clear that it’s not a disincentive for the sale of property and that’s the current position. I’m certainly not going to raise expectations in that department or respond to some kind of stimulated clamor about it.

Asked to comment on the OECD’s recent suggestion that that it might be a good idea to introduce some kind of property tax, Lenihan said: “There are no proposals in government to introduce a property tax. Effectively in Ireland, stamp duty is the property tax and if there’s an overwhelming popular demand to replace stamp duty with a property tax, I’ll certainly examine it. At this stage, it’s the current property tax we have, the outgoing finance minister reformed it in his last budget and I don’t believe it’s central to the current difficulties in the housing market.”

Talk to Joe!

2008-05-07T12:37:00.001Z

Tuesday’s RTE Radio 1 Liveline show with Joe Duffy involved a hunt for the nation’s cheapest brand-new, circa 1300 sq ft, 3-bed, semi-detached property. In the end, it was more or less a tie between a 159K unit in Roscommon and a 165K turn-key in North Donegal.

Strangely enough, there wasn’t the controversy, uproar or recent buyers sobbing over negative equity that you’d expect from a Joe Duffy show on the property market. The premise of the show seemed to be that if you were an auctioneer with cheap or discounted property, you could ring up and advertise it live to the nation.

There wasn’t much time given to prolonged discussion of the property market as most of the agents who came live on the air were simply reporting prices or price cuts. The one overriding message that came through was ‘houses will sell when priced correctly’ and ‘we’ve some great value down in this neck of the woods’. Unsurprisingly, Dublin agents did not feature strongly.

The winner in the price cut category was a development registered with Sherry FitzGerald in Longford that had been cut from 365K to 250K. The agent concerned said that now that the price was right, he expected them to be sold within about 48 hours.

When speaking about the need for correct pricing, one agent made the interesting observation that prices had been artificially inflated at the beginning of the downturn by inexperienced auctioneers trying to get properties on their books. He said that many of the price drops we’re now seeing are the result of these previous overvaluations rather than further decreases.

Towards the end of the show, one eager auctioneer announced that while the show was on air he had called a construction company and received authorisation to cut prices at a development by 15K. A price cut was probably in the pipeline, but this way he got to announce it live to the nation. Joe’s pride at having someway instigated a price drop was palpable.

While prospective buyers outside of Dublin will have enjoyed the show, those of us house-hunting in the pale found it galling. Obviously, new homes with a price tag of less than 200K are enormously attractive but centralisation is an economic reality rather than a choice, and for most of us, paying 159K in Roscommon would make about as much sense as paying 32K in Rudrapur.

Daphne L Kaye's new website

2008-05-06T11:43:00.005Z

Noticed Daphne L. Kaye's new website design. Even though it's only a version of many Web 2.0-type designs, not only is it a big improvement on their previous site, it is now among the best looking agent websites out there: the Web 2.0 templates are clean and professional and welcoming, so they work. Well done to Daphne L. Kaye and to Willows Consulting. Cleverly, the default url is now www.foxrockproperty.com now too.

Quotes of the Week 02/05

2008-05-02T07:52:00.006Z

“While The Irish Times has endeavoured to ensure the accuracy of these sales results it cannot accept responsibility if this information, provided by estate agents, is inaccurate.”

“It is extremely serious from our perspective. It is the equivalent of creating a false market in the price of shares, which is illegal.” - Ann Fitzgerald, chief executive, National Consumer Agency.

“In light of recent events, the IAVI has agreed to find a resolution acceptable to the NCA, on behalf of consumers, and anticipates a speedy resolution to this issue. In addition, we again call for the establishment of National Register of Property Sale Prices to ensure continued transparency in these matters.” - Edward Carey, president, IAVI.

‘‘There is an obligation on licensees [estate agents] to report accurately. If there is evidence of bad practice it is certainly something we would investigate - when we are put on a statutory footing.” - Tom Lynch, chief executive designate, Property Services Regulatory Authority.

“From now on IAVI members will be required by the Institute to refrain from publishing any sale figures other than the exact sale price achieved for any property. In future, terms such as ‘region of’, ‘close to’ or ‘above’ cannot be used and the IAVI recognises that the publication of results, when it occurs, needs to be timely.” – IAVI.

“There has been a notable improvement in demand for well-priced new homes schemes in good locations over the last couple of months although understandably purchasers remain cautious.” - CBRE Research Report - New Homes Market.

‘‘Those who have slashed their prices have sold,” he said. ‘‘If a developer wants to offload units now he has to offer cheaper prices, because the recent increases in rates means prospective buyers need around 10 per cent of their loan, before they can secure it. If you take the average house price in Dublin at €380,000 - 10 per cent of a loan for this is equivalent to some people’s annual salary - so how can you expect someone to save that amount?” - Michael Dowling, spokesman for the Independent Mortgage Advisors Federation (IMAF).

“Until such time as market conditions improve, developers will increasingly focus their attention on securing planning for future projects while many will focus their attentions overseas.” - CBRE Research Report – Development Land.

“The reason why a lot of the €600 million worth of commercial property isn’t selling is because it’s either of dubious quality, or it’s too expensive. Stamp duty remains an issue.” - Jones Lang LaSalle: Ireland Investment Market Review.

“Too much of what’s been in this town [Dublin] for too long is bad quality, and that needs to be looked at again. It’s about time we stopped covering Meath, Wicklow and Carlow in concrete. I don’t think it’s good enough if we don’t care what we leave behind ourselves after we’ve built.” - Mick Wallace, property developer.

Transparency of residential property prices

2008-04-29T17:12:00.008Z

Following the National Consumer Agency's decision to involve itself in the disagreement between the Irish Times and certain estate agents, Geroge Hook yesterday had a discussion on his radio show with Pat Stephenson, director of Norths Property and Alan Ahern, economist from NUI Galway.

Ahern was quick to blame the industry for trying to 'talk-up' the property market. He added that the shortfall of the Irish property market is that the consumer must turn to the untrustworthy industry for any statistical information

Pat Stephenson advised that many agents, such as Norths, strictly abide by the privacy understood within private treaty sales and don't disclose any figures whatsoever. He also said that the level of inaccurate information was not an industry problem, but rather a problem of regulation, which he hoped the forthcoming auctioneers bill might go some way towards solving.

This morning, Ann Fitzgerald of the National Consumer Agency (NCA) was on Morning Ireland's business news. She argued that the reporting of inaccurate information on the prices paid for houses was illegal and created a "false market", against the interests of the consumer. She suggested that future breaches would see the NCA initiate legal proceedings under consumer protection legislation against the individual agency misreporting. She said it was critical that there be "a clear and transparent market".

Is there a necessary change underway in the Irish property market?

Have your say! Vote in our poll to the right! Should we have full transparency in the residential property industry?

Buyer's expectations

2008-04-29T10:32:00.003Z

Can the decision to buy be justified when it’s obvious that prices are going to get lower?

Despite the economic slowdown, I’m still confidant that in ten year’s time any price paid for a property now will seem like a really good one. This means that the two main questions I ask myself remain the same: ‘Would I like to live here? Can I repay the mortgage?’

However with no sign of a let up in the slump and commentators now all but writing off 2008 completely, a third question has been added: ‘How much less could I get this house for at Christmas?’ Following the initial drop in prices, many agents reported a spike in viewings. From a personal point of view, this was because years of spiralling prices meant that going sale agreed anywhere under the asking price was a victory for the buyer - we were eager to capitalise on the perceived value in the market.

As it’s become clear that the property slump is no 3-month dip, our interest has waned. The low house prices of today are now being compared to the lower prices of tomorrow as opposed to the high prices of yesterday. Like many other house-hunters, I’m very relieved that bids I placed on houses 6 months ago were rejected and am anxious to avoid making a similar mistake.

A quick search through property chat forums reveals that common opinion estimates prices to fall by a further 10% this year. While this is mostly based on hearsay, the logic behind it that as prices fell by 10% last year, they’ll do the same this year before levelling out in 2009.

So, the first time buyer is expecting the €380,000 average Dublin home to cost €342,000 at year-end, and consequently that would be the sum we’re willing to part with now. This is, of course, assuming that prices pick up in 2009. However, recent events have begun to suggest otherwise.

Just as the issue of oversupply was working to correct itself, the last two weeks chaos in the mortgage markets have moved everything two steps back by placing a stranglehold on demand.

Put simply, the recall of 100% mortgages means that many prospective buyers are out of the running until they figure out how to come up with a +30K deposit. The tightening of some offers from 90% to 85% means that another group of people also have to find more capital before they can buy.

So we’re now only left with the first-time-buyers who have a deposit secured. As demand drops, so too surely must prices?

In the new homes market, over-exposed developers will acquiesce to the demand for lower prices. However, in the second hand market, vendors who had just become realistic about today’s prices will surely not be happy about facing a further 10% cut. All this makes business even tougher for the estate agent. My first comment at most viewings is ‘they know they’re not going to get close to this asking, don’t they?’ Unfortunately, I think many of them still don’t.

Sweeten the deal

2008-04-25T11:29:00.006Z

Aside from simply cutting prices, how can developers convince nervous buyers to take the plunge on a new home? Initially it was thought that furniture packages and the tantalising possibility of a big raffle prize could cover up the drop in market value. Now, as buyers’ confidence continues to ebb, developers have begun to offer various insurances against the pitfalls of the market and in one case, even a money-back-if-not-satisfied deal.

Offering sweeteners has been commonplace in the property market for some time. An example at the height of the boom in 2006 was when developer Paddy Gilboy decided to offer a free €21,000 two-berth cruiser as a raffle prize to those who purchased a home in his riverside development in the Upper Shannon. While a raffle ticket doesn’t seem like much reward for a home costing between €285,000 and €385,000, there were only 6 units launched in the phase. So, a quick sales run was considered worth a little under €4,000 per unit.

When the slump hit, the offers got bigger, better and more frequent. Lifestyle packages including high quality kitchens, bathrooms and landscaping became the standard for many new developments. Menolly Homes introduced their “Golden Hello” package which offered purchasers at The Coast in Baldoyle fittings worth between €8,500 and €22,000 depending on the value of their purchase. A Sligo developer went further and held a raffle for a free apartment for anyone who bought one of 12 tax-designated units - priced at €175,000. Buyers at Kings Court in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath were offered the choice of a Fiat Punto or furniture packages worth €15,000 and LM Developments are currently offering a free Volvo C30 with every house purchased at their Alderwood development at Hollystown in Dublin 15. Barrack Homes chose to offer a financial incentive as opposed to material goods. In late 2007 they launched their ‘Fixed Plan’ scheme which would subsidise purchasers’ mortgage repayments for three years on its developments in Newbridge, Kilcock and Ballitore.

Eclipsing all these offers, the deep pockets of DAMAC properties found a private jet and a private island in the Caribbean Sea to raffle to Irish investors who purchased an apartment during the Dubai Shopping Festival earlier this year. The company also offered a free car with each property ranging from a BMW 1 series for a one-bed costing €110,000, up to a Bentley Continental Flying Spur that came with luxury penthouses. Though the properties concerned were not in Ireland, the furniture and Fiat Puntos offered by Irish developers suddenly looked far less appealing.

Aware that buyers see these offers for what they are – a smokescreen to disguise a property’s drop in value - some builders have changed tack. Instead of offering freebies, they are now coming up with novel ways of giving buyers security against the market.

Woodgreen Builders will now guarantee buyers two years rent on their existing homes when they purchase a €395,000 home in Bettystown. Woodgreen say this will give sell-to-buyers the chance to ‘buy while house prices are at their lowest level in years and rent out your existing home at rock solid guaranteed rent for two whole years giving the property market time to recover before you sell your existing house at a potentially far more advantageous time’. Additionally, Woodgreen is offering to arrange the finance for the new home, the letting of the existing home and pay the bill for tax advice.

The most dramatic offer of them all was revealed in the Irish Independent today. The paper reported that Walsh Maguire is offering a “cash back guarantee” to buyers of its new 5-bedroom homes in West Dublin. If you’re not satisfied after 18 months, the developer will buy the home back for the original purchase price. The developer said that the scheme is intended to allay worries about negative equity on the homes which have already been reduced from €695,000 to €595,000. What’s next? Buy one get one free?

Quotes of the Week 25/04

2008-04-25T08:03:00.002Z

‘I feel a bit like Brian Cowen. I get into the top job just when it looks like the party is over.’ – Edward Carey, President, IAVI.

“The current price correction is welcome and brings prices back to end 2005 levels, which are sustainable. Now, we find ourselves in a more demanding market, which others may fear, but in which I see opportunities. There is activity in the market and properties will continue to sell where people perceive value. Although prices may have decreased, demand is good, rents are stable and people are still looking to set up homes all over the country.” - Edward Carey, President, IAVI.

"All the data suggests the economy has slowed down very sharply. The banks are assuming it will be spring 2009 before demand bounces back" - Scott Rankin, analyst, Davy Stockbrokers.

"You might not want to shout about it, but the odds are long on there being any meaningful recovery this year” – unnamed senior banker, Irish Times.

“They're not threatening an immediate rate [ECB] hike, but the hawks are framing the debate now” - Nick Kounis, Economist, Fortis Bank.

"There is a substantial adjustment to be made. There is a disconnect between what banks are paying for their money and what the customers are paying for their loans. It is finally coming home to roost. The whole market has been topsy-turvy since last August." - Mark Duffy, Chief Executive, Bank of Scotland (Ireland).

"It had been very much a cat-and- mouse situation. All lenders want to be the first to be seen to be cutting rates, but nobody wants to be the first to raise," – Emer Lang, Analyst, Davy Stockbrokers.

"All our competitors will react. Why? Because they won't make money out of mortgages. If this continues, it will be very bad news for everyone in the circle." - Mark Duffy, Chief Executive, Bank of Scotland (Ireland).

“We now have a strong distribution channel through which we can sell our mortgage product range. We have already announced that we intend to grow this network, which will provide further capability to increase our mortgage market share” – Ulster Bank commenting on the withdrawal of its mortgages from the broker market.

"It will remain an interesting exercise if the lender can increase market share and maintain profit margins operating solely via the branch network." - Frank Conway, Director of Brokers, Irish Mortgage Corporation.

"Here, the workload on a mortgage has not diminished but expanded because the credit crisis means more cases involve a degree of negotiations with lenders. So the deal is more complex, and if the commission has been cut by the lender then there is no alternative but to charge the appropriate fee." - Diarmuid Kelly, Chief Executive, PIBA.

“With financial institutions either abolishing or slashing fees to brokers it's hard to be confident that they will direct consumers to products or institutions where they receive less or no income … There is now a potential conflict of interest and a concern that ways and means will be found by some brokers around this to maintain their income. This is especially so in a much slower market.” - James Doorley, Chairman, Consumers Association.

"How would you feel if you come into work one day and you were told that your income was to be cut in half?" – Jack Fitzpatrick, Chairman, Professional Insurance Brokers Association.

“The builder [Walsh Maguire] says it will guarantee to buy back homes for a period of five years from the date of purchase at the original price after 18 months has lapsed if the buyer gets itchy feet after purchasing one of 16 new five-bedroom homes at its development in West Dublin.” – Irish Independent, 25/04/08.

“Woodgreen Builders is guaranteeing buyers two years rent on their existing homes when they purchase a four-bed house for €395,000. Woodgreen is promising to manage everything from arranging the finance for your new home in Roseville to managing the letting of your existing home. He will even foot the bills for tax advice.” – Irish Times, 24/04/08.

“Brian Cowen, should be asked to examine the possibility of replacing stamp duty with a more sustainable and equitable form of property tax” – The Sunday Business post reporting on recommendations made by the National Economic and Social Council.

“110,000 sq m of new Dublin office space was completed in the first quarter of 2008. This means that we built more offices in the first three months of 2008 than in the whole of 2006. Looking at the projects currently under construction, this building boom seems set to continue for another 15 months. The market will take time to digest the amount of new product coming on-stream and this could see the quantity of available space begin to creep up later in the year”. – Paul Hipwell, Divisional Director, Lisney.

“New office developments that have not yet broken ground could potentially be put on hold given the current market environment. More rigorous assessment of new office schemes is a welcome outcome of the current funding crisis as this will ultimately prevent oversupply and sustain rental values, even if occupier demand starts to ease” - Marie Hunt, Director of Research, CB Richard Ellis.

“It would appear that office occupiers are becoming even more focussed on city centre properties as economic prospects decline” - James Mulhall, Director of Office Agency, CB Richard Ellis.

“The plan identifies eight ‘‘high intensity clusters’’, in which high-rise buildings may be permitted. The areas are the Dublin Docklands, Dublin Port, the south bank of the Liffey near Poolbeg, the Tara Street area, the areas around Connolly and Heuston Stations, the Digital Hub, and Grangegorman” – The Sunday Business Post reporting on a new policy permitting high-rise development in Dublin.

"Call our agency!"

2008-04-21T16:37:00.004Z

This development in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan - Lough na Glack - is clearly after a Dublin market, advertising on the back of the 16 bus here, and emphasising that is only 45 minutes from Dublin airport (it doesn't say at what time of day that is). But what's most interesting about the marketing is the down-playing of the agent: no mention on the bus poster, and only the slightest indication on the website at the foot of the page that it is Property Partners Gartlan that you are calling when you enquire - no logo. Has the agency been too prominent in the marketing of new homes developments in Ireland over the past decade or so? Will the tighter market bring about a shift back to the developer in that respect?

Chapped lips?

2008-04-18T09:51:00.005Z

Drop in to Savills reception area on Molesworth Street and pick up on of these ...

It won't act as a balm to your property worries, but as a marketing gimmick, I quite like it. It's better than crummy calendars; and it's more "out there" than say key chains and pens. What's next, a tube of branded aspirin or antacids? Or would that imply too much that there were serious problems in the property market?

National be nice to estate agents day: did you catch it?

2008-04-16T19:29:00.003Z

In this Guardian blog from February, we can learn a lot from the (uncensored, you are warned!) comments at the end about what people think of estate agents ...

"Even the most cynical among us can surely spare a thought for that much-maligned individual the estate agent, writes Susan Smillie.

These property professionals are apparently so unloved that one of their number, Alan Howick, from Essex, has felt the need to designate today "national be nice to estate agents day" (NBNTEAD)."

Quotes of the week 11/04

2008-04-11T09:01:00.004Z

"So the Daft survey simply shows that now vendors are not as daft as they were last year." Donal Buckley, Irish Independent journalist.

"The Taoiseach is providing a shelter for people who are buying. This pertains to the major developers and big high-rolling development land purchases are what is being protected. To tell members (of the Dail) this practice has been around for some time makes it worse. This is a gift to people who are making big money on the exchange of development land and who have made massive profits on it." Eamon Gilmore, TD, Leader of the Labour Party.

"You can't be worrying about construction employment on Tuesday and then on Wednesday try to trigger something that will affect the construction industry." Taoiseach Bertie Aherne, TD, President of Fianna Fail.

“Furthermore, at that point, the interest cycle had not yet peaked. It was widely tipped, expected and accepted that the ECB would yet again raise rates that September - and possibly again at Christmas. If this scenario had played out, we would now be dealing with interest rates of 4.5 per cent. This would have severely impacted any recovery or resilience in the different residential market segments. We would have potentially seen increased rates of foreclosures, something that is plaguing the US residential markets, as well as the major banks - which are having to write-off billions of dollars.” Mary-Kate McGarry, economist with Savills Hamilton Osborne King in Dublin

"While supply continues to retrench, there are signs that housing demand might finally be stabilising. House prices are bottoming out some 15 per cent off their peak 2006 levels and a more normal level of activity will return to the market in the second half of the year." Dr Ronnie O’Toole, chief economist with National Irish Bank

“According to the Daft.ie data, the stock of homes for sale on the website has begun to stabilise over the past few months. However, closer analysis reveals that stock levels in Q1 were still 51% ahead of last year’s levels. The stabilisation has been mainly due to the fact that the number of homes being put on the market has fallen quite significantly, by 48% year-on-year in Q1 in fact. This may be due to a number of reasons, including a realisation by the sellers that the market has reached a saturation point or that sellers are unlikely to achieve their desired selling price in the current market. To clear this stock, asking prices may have to be adjusted further downwards, and vendors should not let their emotions get in the way, as recent evidence suggests buyers are willing to move at the right price.” Dermot O'Leary, Chief Economist, Goodbody Stockbrokers

“The first signs things were going wrong appeared earlier this year when property funds, which had been the main final buyer in the market, were forced to freeze withdrawals. With the potential of large sales by property funds, rising vacancy rates, a large supply of new properties, and the difficulties of some large lenders in the market in raising funds; there is a real prospect of sharp falls in commercial property prices.” Morgan Kelly is professor of economics at University College Dublin.

‘‘All banks are more cautious about development finance following the sub-prime crisis; the extent of this shift and the way in which it is reflected in lending terms varies widely across markets… One possible consequence of a reduction in the supply of development finance, and therefore new buildings, is that any softening in tenant demand is partially offset by lower supply growth, thereby limiting any rental downside.” CBRE report on a survey of lenders in 19 European countries.

Throwing the first stone in a glass house

2008-04-10T17:12:00.007Z

One of the Around the Block market comments in the Irish Times property supplement today discusses a piece of marketing from Owenass for a development in Portlaoise: a 20-page magazine devoted to the Esker Hills development, that the writer reckons is a first in terms of marketing developments in Ireland.

It's the comment that 'The magazine includes "articles" about the residential market' that I find interesting. Articles being put in inverted commas suggests that (of course) they are not the same as "articles" in newspapers such as the Irish Times, that is, articles with a capital A, you might say. Inverted commas used like this are usually about highlighting something unreliable in the use of the word in the context: here, that the articles cannot be taken as "independent".

The example given by Around the Block is that the magazine articles about the market PREDICTABLY suggest that "it's a buyers' market don't ya know". The tone achieved by the 'don't ya know' is the belittling device.

I have one question to put, rhetorically, on this matter: How many "articles" have you read in the Irish Times property supplement that mention negative things about the houses they are describing (and which happen also to be "advertised" in the very same supplement, don't ya know)?

PW's new COMMERCIAL PROPERTY DATA service

2008-04-09T18:32:00.008Z

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Property Partners website

2008-04-04T09:17:00.005Z

Relieved to see Property Partners have freshened up their website: the old one was becoming extremely painful to look at. Unfortunately, there's a bit of the "missed opportunity" about this as many aspects of the new site are just the old ones touched up cosmetically. The navigation area is still very unpolished-looking, and the placement of the black-background treatment of the logo on blue is really not very pleasant to behold. (It even includes the web address, when you're already there! Like finding a location map on the door of an office you're visiting!)

The supplier responsible, Strata 3, claim the following on their website:
29-02-2008

Property Partners Goes Live

Strata3 have launched a comprehensive portal for Property Partners. The system designed & developed by Strata3, features residential and commercial property sales & lettings for agents throughout the country. The site in effect links 50 property companies through a single web system.

Yet, really much of that architecture seems to me to be what was there already and all they have done is tweak the graphic overlay. Pity. Maybe it was one of Colliers Jackson-Stops terms for agreeing to a commercial property alliance.

Quotes of the Week 04/04

2008-04-04T07:48:00.003Z

“The evidence from quarter one shows that the Dublin market is recovering somewhat, a trend which will begin to spread to the rest of the country in the coming months.” – Marian Finnegan, Chief Economist, Sherry FitzGerald Group.

"We expect house prices to decline by about 6 per cent this year and stay approximately flat in 2009." - Jean-Michel Six, economist, Standard & Poors.

“We expect affordability to improve further for first-time buyers this year on the back of slowing house prices and possible decreases in mortgage interest rates – we expect that during 2008, more than likely in the latter half of the year, the ECB will reduce rates albeit it is difficult to predict by how much.” - Dara Deering, Director of Membership Business, EBS Building Society.

“The monthly increase in residential mortgages in February was well below last year’s level. The monthly increase of just .712 million was the lowest in five years, and brought the average monthly increase in 2008 to date to .768 million. This is similar to the average monthly increase in 2002.” – Central Bank.

“Relative to other European economies, the Irish retail market continues to perform well regardless of wider economic concerns and occupier demand remains robust. Threats of potential oversupply, while very real, have, in our opinion, been overstated in recent months." – Marie Hunt, Director of Research, CBRE.

“My assessment of the [retail property] market in Ireland from 2008 out to 2010 is that we will see many winners and losers. The so-called ‘‘already established regional schemes’’, or those with expansion potential, are the ones that are likely to continue to perform best and will show ongoing rental growth into the future.” – Stephen Murray, European Retail Director, Jones Lang LaSalle.

“On one hand, rents have been driven up by tighter supply of industrial space in Dublin. This follows from the fact that industrial development has increasingly been displaced by higher end-use value development such as residential, retail and offices in locations close to the city. This process has been facilitated by infrastructural improvements which have made surrounding counties such as Meath, Wicklow and Kildare more attractive locations for logistics occupiers.” - Dr. John McCartney, Head of Research, Lisney.

"Prime industrial rents remain stable at around 130 per square metre and we do not anticipate any significant change in the coming months.” – CBRE

“To cope with our growing population, developers should be required to pay more towards the cost of providing schools, public water and sewage facilities, roads and footpaths and public transport infrastructure” – Mr John Gormley, Minister for the Environment

"The new arrangement gives Property Partners a double-edged advantage with the benefit of CJS's commercial consultancy strength, expertise and access to world markets alongside unrivalled representation through 55 branches of Property Partners across Ireland." - Marcus Magnier, Director, Colliers Jackson-Stops.

Quotes of the Week 28/03

2008-03-28T08:52:00.002Z

"I think the rate of price decrease over the first two months of the year is lower than many people might have expected. We are also seeing that some sellers are finally grasping the point that people are interested in buying properties if the prices sought are realistic. This in turn is leading to more market transactions when compared to quarter 4 2007.” - Niall O’Grady, General Manager Marketing, Permanent TSB.

"Despite the recent slowdown in the housing market, Ireland's household balance sheet is in good shape with combined equity at €388bn and outstanding mortgage debt of only 24pc of the value of the housing assets." - Gabriel Bannigan, Head of Halifax.

“This rapid supply response by the building sector is ultimately positive for the housing market but is negative for GDP, knocking 1.3 percentage points off the average growth rate in 2008. The global supply of credit may also be curtailed for a time and, as a result, we now expect a less rapid recovery in 2009 with growth set to pick up to 4%” – Dr. Dan McLaughlin, Chief Economist, Bank of Ireland.

"The gap between the prime city and prime suburban rents [commercial] has widened, if anything, thus making the suburbs more attractive." - Joan Henry, Head of Research, Savills HOK.

"There is no doubt that weaker economic growth will reduce rental growth prospects in many markets, including Ireland, but provided it does not turn into a significant recession a pause in growth is more likely than falling rents. This, in turn, will help support capital values and should stimulate a return to higher levels of investment activity once the current financial uncertainties moderate"- Marie Hunt, CBRE.

“Invariably, the global credit crunch, especially the US situation, has had a knock on effect, which coupled with consumer inflation, is placing continuing pressure onto the property market. We continue to call on the Bank of England to lower interest rates to help prevent the economy slumping and to help bring back a renewed sense of optimism for the consumers” - NAEA president Stewart Lilly commenting on UK house buyer levels falling to a record low.

"It [ECB Rate] corresponds to what we believe is necessary to achieve price stability in the medium-term. If we had reduced interest rates, the moral hazard is that we would have been asking citizens to bail out the banks." - Jean-Claude Trichet, Chief, European Central Bank.

‘‘The impact of Section 110 could be in excess of the price effects and could help drive activity levels significantly below long-term housing market requirements. Such an outcome would be undesirable, in terms of housing price and output stability. It will also impact negatively on property-based tax incentive schemes, which could add to the downturn in activity in the commercial property sector.” – A confidential government report recommends leaving a stamp duty loophole open.

Quotes of the Week 21/03

2008-03-21T10:04:00.000Z

“The Institute has suspended forty six members for three months from mid March because of their failure to verify compliance and pay subsequent fines imposed. In addition to the suspended members, a further eleven have paid fines for failure to comply before the deadline, averaging €2,100 each.” – IAVI

“We are going through a sharp transition that will see house-building levels temporarily dip beneath our long-term annual requirement. This adjustment will not be painless, but it will help to stabilise a housing market that has been too turbulent in recent years.” - Dr John McCartney, Head of Research, Lisney.

“Halifax calculates that the value of Ireland's private housing stock was an estimated €511 billion in 2007, with housing equity at €395m. The value of the Irish housing stock has increased by 366% (€401 billion) over the last ten years but fell by 4% (€21 billion) in 2007, reflecting a slower housing market.” - Halifax review of the value of Irish housing stock.

“There's a cost to how much you can afford to pay a person to do a day's job. What we saw is when the market was at its peak in 2006 and in 2007, there was a scarcity of labour, and that drove up labour prices. What we want to see is a correction in labour prices to a long-term sustainable price regime whereby not only can we pay people today, but people have a job tomorrow because we're still competitive as an industry and as a country.” – IHBA Chairman John Moran.

“There has already been an increase of land sales of potential sites, with future potential looking to entice developers with lower land costs in what is already appearing to be a turbulent time for the development market. Areas which have typically been developed for logistics or distribution centres will now have potential for high density mixed-use developments, subject to the necessary planning permission” - Keith Begley, Lisney.

“In spite of current economic uncertainty, the industrial market continues to perform well. This is primarily due to a lack of supply of serviced industrial sites close to good transport links. In addition to this, a number of the more established industrial areas of Dublin, particularly those inside the M50, have been re-zoned to facilitate higher land uses such as office, retail and residential.” - Paul Finucane, Colliers Dublin.

"I'm not sure if there is much of a market here for green mortgages but the lenders do need to innovate and this is an option. A potential market could be for people looking to trade up, not first time buyers who just want to get on the ladder, and there needs to be some thought put into creating attractive products rather than just offering coupons.” - Brendan Kelly, financial advisor, IrelandMortgages.com.

Quotes of the Week 14/03

2008-03-14T08:56:00.000Z

“Our survey of estate agents reveals that 63% believe that there has not been an increase in the amount of transactions, relative to viewings, since the Autumn selling season … On prices, over half of the respondents to our survey believe further declines are likely over the next twelve months.” – Goodbody Stockbrokers.

“"Eventually this [slowdown in building activity] will be reflected in supply towards the end of year, when prices should pick up slightly. It won't be an annus horribilis like last year." - Ronan O'Driscoll, Savills HOK.

“While supply now appears likely to be cut this year, the demographic forces, which underpinned demand growth since the mid 1990s, are set to remain very strong in the years ahead, though the period of demand acceleration is over. Thus the market should find an equilibrium rather than see a protracted fall in prices.” – NCB Stockbrokers.

"Moderate reductions [in new developments] won't work, they have to be serious discounts. At this stage just offering free furniture packages is like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic." – Unnamed estate agent, The Irish Times.

"We can see now that there are queues outside some developments launched . . . in the last three or four weeks. Customers are voting with their feet and buying new houses again” - John Moran, chairman of the Irish Home Builders' Association and director of Manor Park Homebuilders.

"Feedback from the housing market over recent months suggests that while viewing levels have been relatively good, there is an apathy towards the actual purchase of the property. Originally, this may have stemmed somewhat from uncertainty around whether there would be changes to the stamp duty regime, but more recently, it is probably due to expectations of future declines in capital values and the fear of committing to the purchase too early." – Dermot O’Leary, economist, Goodbody Stockbrokers.

‘Uncertainty about interest rates remains a key issue for the market. Brokers believe that a more favourable interest rate climate would make a major difference to the market in the coming year. With a little luck this will materialise late in 2008' - Mr. Paul Short, President, IMAF.

‘Planners have made the worst decision possible. They've thrown out the 37-storey tower, which was too high but had some architectural merit, and left us with 18-storey blocks with no merit at all.’ - Dermot Lacey, Labour councillor and former lord mayor speaking on the rejection of Sean Dunne’s Ballsbridge tower.

"The massive investment into roads, predominantly along the M1, N2, M7 and N11 corridors, have contributed to these high levels of demand for the new emerging industrial locations. Our research indicates that demand along the M7 is at an all time high of 36pc of the overall demand for the Dublin area, which is currently only accounting for approximately 22pc of take-up." - Garrett McClean, head of industrial property, CBRE.

“The other significant trend is that the lack of suitable office accommodation in major cities is driving corporate occupiers to actively consider decentralising some or all of their operations to secondary cities and other lower cost, peripheral locations. In the Dublin area in particular, we are witnessing a continued demand for flexible lease terms, which is comparable to the rest of Europe, coupled with an increase in the number of clients seeking additional space in suburban locations in order to reduce their operating costs” - Fionnuala O’Buachalla, director, Jones Lang LaSalle (Ireland).

‘‘The Docklands authority is currently studying the options open to it in relation to the feasibility for further development in the North Lotts area, which it believes has significant potential for providing an enhanced residential, commercial and cultural environment, including family living initiatives underpinned by substantial community gain,” – DDDA.

Quotes of the Week 07/03

2008-03-07T08:48:00.001Z

"I have heard a lot about this. Basically a lot of developers around the country cannot develop at the moment because they cannot sell the product. A lot of them are under serious financial stress" - Jim Power, economist, Friends First.

“Last weekend over 400 people showed up at the launch of the latest phase of houses at the long running Dalriada development in Knocklyon, Dublin 16, where prices had been dropped by 20 per cent. Not all were buyers, but no less than 45 of the 50 apartments and houses were sold, some to people who had queued on the site overnight to get the first choice” – The Irish Times

“The worst performing country price-wise in 2007 was Ireland, where house prices fell by an estimated 7% – or nearly a tenth in real terms. It had been one of the continent’s price leaders only a short time before. The cutback is having knock-on effects throughout Europe, because Irish buyers used rising housing wealth back home and attractive tax breaks there (via re-mortgaging and pensions) to invest substantially in real estate elsewhere, out of all proportion to the relative size of the country.” – Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors: European housing Review 2008.

"Even with prices on the open market dropping, the vast majority of people would not be able to service a mortgage and still depend on local authorities to supply houses at affordable prices." - Mary Shaughnessy, South Dublin County Council.

“The world markets have been shaky, but if we can get over this year, things should improve. I think the level of enquiries and proposals we are receiving will bear this out. Leases in Ireland are traditionally long, and large projects take a lot of planning, so the future is about the fruition of these.” - Mike Kavanagh, MD, Structure Tone Ireland.

“A number of good investment opportunities may be put to the market over the coming months and this will undoubtedly test the strength of demand. The pace of transactional activity will, however, be dictated by the availability and cost of funding.” – CB Richard Ellis: Bi-monthly research report.

"We used to see quite a number of small syndicates, made up of a group of friends, that would club together and buy land. That market has gone. Really, unless you're an established player, it's extremely hard to get financing from the banks." - Donal Kellegher, director, Savills HOK.

"We have information at our disposal that enables us to forecast trends and make predictions for the short- to medium-term performance … It is remarkable that our 2006 census can tell us how many native Irish speakers live in Roscommon, what type of sewerage facilities are prevalent in Wicklow or what percentage of the population of Leitrim does voluntary work. But no one can find out how many unsold housing units are out there or how many more will be built this year." - Marie Hunt, head of research, CB Richard Ellis.

"The project represents a huge vote of confidence in Cork and the docklands and the inclusion of a conference/events centre with an audience capacity of over 5,000 people is very welcome - it's something the council has pursued and is contributing to its capital cost." – Joe Gavin, Cork city manager.

Quotes of the Week 29/02

2008-02-29T08:38:00.003Z

“At current transaction rates, the available housing supply is closer to 14 months worth of supply. We are now in the middle of the Spring selling season. Newsflow over the coming weeks will have a large bearing on the outlook for prices, and indeed output plans, over the coming quarters.” – Dermot O’Leary, Economist, Goodbody Stockbrokers.

"Prices have bottomed out and people are starting to move." - Wade Wise, Residential Director, Savills HOK.

‘‘The value of commercial property will increasingly be driven by sustainability and climate change issues. The move to create low carbon buildings will accelerate and both occupiers and investors will drive this shift, motivated by corporate social responsibility, brand value, the desire to reduce energy costs and the need to future-proof their properties.” - Mark Woodall, Chief Executive, Climate Change Capital.

“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”. – John McCarthy, Head of Research, Lisney.

‘The new policy guidance is clearly focused on proactively addressing the issue of taking in charge at the pre-planning stage. This approach coupled with the extensive powers already available to planning authorities to deal with non compliance will ensure that the legacy of unfinished estates is consigned to the past.’ - Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. John Gormley.

“Germany is now established as a core investment market in Europe, accounting for 22% of turnover in 2007. We are still seeing large amounts of capital seeking opportunities in the market and this demand is keeping investment yields stable. Many investors, including Irish investors who invested more than €1 billion in Germany in 2007, are focussing on investing in German real estate on the back of the rental growth potential in key cities such as Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg.” - Peter Schreppel, Head of International Investment, Frankfurt office, CB Richard Ellis.

“In the current environment, investors need to focus on core property fundamentals of property investment, namely good buildings in prime locations let at sensible market rents. This type of investment should benefit from rental growth in the coming years, which will be the primary driver of performance. The market has now changed from a debt-driven market to an equity driven market, so Irish buyers will be competing with cash investors. To counteract this, Irish buyers will have to have their debt in place and move quickly to get the best property investment opportunities in 2008.” - Caroline McCarthy, Head of Overseas Investment, Dublin office, CB Richard Ellis.

‘‘They should have master-planned a mini-town for the area [Sandyford] and, instead, they allowed developers to essentially build whatever they wanted out there. It’s turning into an awful mess. The roads are a mess and there’s too much stuff being built for the Luas to cope with.” – Unnamed property industry source, Sunday Business Post.

Property searching in Polish

2008-02-27T20:13:00.004Z

The ERA Ireland website offers property hunters the chance to choose to search in Polish. Unfortunately, it is only the standard content of the site that is translated and the information on individual properties is only available in English.

Surely at this stage in this demographic shift, there's some competitive advantage to be had for some canny agency to provide actual property information in Polish, and perhaps even employing a Polish-speaking negotiator.

One for everyone in the audience

2008-02-26T16:43:00.006Z

In an attempt to attract buyers back into the market, developers of new homes have recently been using a number of innovative methods. Most notably, of course, price reductions top this list as well as offers to pay the mortgage for a certain period of time or to stump up part of the required deposit. Membership of an adjacent golf course is also a favoured sweetner. Kings Court in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath provides the prospective buyer with one of three options: free childcare for two years, a new car or a full turnkey furnishing with every home. All are inclusive in the overall price but which one would you prefer?

You've taken our survey ...

2008-02-25T20:00:00.003Z

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP.

NOW TAKE ANOTHER IF YOU LIKE

Quotes of the Week 22/02

2008-02-22T10:32:00.002Z

‘We are now seeing first-time buyers out viewing properties. Most of these buyers are already loan-approved and have been for several months - many were in the market last summer but they decided to rent until the market steadied. We are now seeing price reductions in play and first-time buyers are semiseriously starting to buy and make bids, albeit under the asking prices.’ - Paul Murgatroyd, economist, Douglas Newman Good.

“Houses are sitting on the market because there are so few buyers out there, so those that want to buy are in a better position” - Marie Hunt, director of research, CB Richard Ellis.

‘‘Second-hand homes are on a price par with newly built homes - there is no longer an advantage to buying a new development over a second-hand property so we’re seeing lots of activity from first-time buyers in the market” - Trina Beakey, manager, Savills Hamilton Osborne King Phibsboro.

‘‘Second-hand properties offer even better value since the abolition of stamp duty for first-time buyers and new build properties no longer have that advantage over our market. And all the prices of existing stock have been reduced in the last few months -most vendors have reduced their prices and the take-up in sales is improving.” - Ronan O’Hara, Savills Hamilton Osborne King Dun Laoghaire.

“The responsibility of Government is to protect individuals from actions by others which may harm them. In this case, that responsibility has been thrown onto organisations like ours, which has an exemplary record … At the end of the day, we can’t regulate people who aren’t members, - that is the job of Government, and they should act. It is absolutely insane that our Government would sit back and allow the public to be exposed to people who in many cases haven’t the first idea of what they should be doing, and in many more cases, think they can get away with out doing it anyway.” - Robert Ganly, President of the IAVI.

"I was on the city council throughout that process [of the Local Area Plan] and we rejected the intensification of the developments in that area and on that site. It is clear the planners ignored the wishes of the councillors … Either we respect the rules or the guidelines that are set down under the development plan which is provided for in statute or we don't. It is this type of ignoring development plans that have led to all sorts of problems across Dublin." - Lucinda Creighton, Dublin South East TD, commenting on Dublin City Council’s decision to grant planning permission for Glenkerrin’s 15-storey Ballsbridge development.

"There is still off-market activity with some hard negotiations taking place to get deals across the line. Cash-rich developers are closely monitoring the market with a view to picking up any bargains that emerge" - Stephen Cassidy, Savills Hamilton Osborne King.

“Although price levels are still significantly higher than at this stage last year, the final quarter of 2007 saw prices levels come down and the volume of transactions fall, particularly in the [Northern Ireland] second-hand market … The affordability gap for first-time buyers is narrowing but the early indications from 2008 suggest a market that is still stricken with relative inactivity, uncertainty and nervousness over valuations,” - Louise Brown, University of Ulster.

Waiter, can you sell my house for me?

2008-02-21T16:38:00.005Z

We were comparing notes with a friend of ours with knowledge of the US estate agent world, and he was saying things are similarly tough at the moment in the property market there. He knows of a restaurant in his town where four of the waiting staff are real estate agents - trying to keep the property sales going in the background but having to do nights at tables to keep the wolf from the door. Typically, I'd imagine they are using it as an opportunity - on the look out for new vendors, keeping an ear out for property related gossip, and possibly leaving their card with the bill instead of the restaurants. Could be the way forward!

Kelly Hudson sign up to RE/MAX

2008-02-20T09:07:00.003Z

Kelly Hudson Properties of Newbridge has signed up to RE/MAX.

Previously with RE/MAX Newbridge, John Kelly of Kelly Hudson opened his own straight-talking property brokerage.

With RE/Max Newbridge now closed, he has chosen to continue his own agency under the RE/MAX umbrella, as Newbridge's RE/MAX Achievers.

IAVI & PropertyNews.com?

2008-02-19T12:28:00.004Z

Anyone got any idea why the IAVI has PropertyNews.com's logo on their homepage? Why would they be promoting this private business over others?

On a related matter, we notice that funda.ie is still live but is anyone still using it?

What's your opinion on this one? ....

2008-02-18T09:48:00.002Z

According to the Business Post: "One third of the 170,000 new homes added to the Irish market over the past two years have not been sold, according to an analysis of new figures by The Sunday Business Post." One third of new homes unsold as slowdown hits (17 February 2008 By David Clerkin, Markets Correspondent)

What do you think? You can leave a comment, anonymously, just by clicking on Comment below.