The future of PropertyNews.com

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

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

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

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

Talk about misleading advertising!

Quotes of the Week

Week starting 26.01.2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quotes of the Week

Week starting 19.01.2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quotes of the Week

Week starting 12.01.2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quotes of the Week

Week starting 05.01.2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quotes of the Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quotes of the Week

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

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

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

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