Quotes of the Week 21/03

“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.