One swallow makes a summer in newspaper land

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.

This Month's Top Headlines

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.

Throwing the first stone in a glass house

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)?

"Property" is back

The importance of property advertising to the Irish Times is plain to see. Ever before the company bought MyHome.ie the newspaper's revenues from property advertising were clearly very important to its bottom line; and since its €50m purchase of that property advertising website, the dependency has intensified.

With this in mind, today's banner headline 'Property Is Back' is a loaded one. It is, of course, referring to the supplement, which is called just Property, being back in the fold of the paper after the Christmas holiday period did away with (as it always does) any chance of selling enough property advertising space to justify a separate print process. But it is funny that they chose such a direct way to announce the return: Property is Back (more important than Clinton v Obama! and nearly as important as THE IRISH TIMES title). Even in the same important location on the page, they could have put it differently: Property Supplement Back, or even "Property" Is Back. But, instead they allow the reader to do a double-take and think for a second they're saying, maybe, Property is back in fashion (after a slump in interest), or perhaps even, The property market itself is back.

It would be a nonsense claim to say that the Irish Times property supplement IS the property market. Of course, it's not true in any numerical sense in that the specific readership profile of the Times limits the percentage of the total market that is represented in the pages of the supplement. However, in a looser sense the claim is at least partly true - a very important niche of the Irish property marketm (one which has an influence on the other levels of the market) is almost totally conducted through & dependent on the pages of the supplement.

Of course, that's not necessarily a problem. It's a really good read, Property in the Irish Times, and we all know it's not a forum for reporting or even independent thought on the property market; and also the revenues are put to good enough use (in my opinion, at least) in that it's a damn good newspaper all round for a country our size. But, one would hope that

1. The property market could cope without the Irish Times (Surely ...)
and
2. The Irish Times could survive without property advertising (Hmm, you'd wonder, especially with it carrying the MyHome.ie purchase ...)