Current public sentiment towards the housing market?

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Short-term speculators - I wonder how many of these are about.

We lost (Edit: opted out of) a bidding war on a €900,000 house in February, the deal went through a few weeks later. Driving past it today, Mrs. Whathome noticed that it had not been touched, weeds in the garden etc. So she cheekily stopped and took a closer look and it's vacant.

No building work, no furniture. It's exactly as it was in Feb. I'm not saying it was definitely a speculator however.

With IO mortgages I wonder if there are many people taking big short-term bets on Dublin property?
 
Why are German yields 6% and ours 3% - easy...the Germans have strict tenancy laws...making the tenant all powerful (hence the high rental figures)..German property looks cheap as a result. I would be VERY careful buying here as you may be buying the most illiquid of assets. Also, when Hanz from Munich wants his Bosch dishwasher upgraded..don't expect to get away with a Zanussi...
Firefly
 
Short-term speculators - I wonder how many of these are about.

We lost (Edit: opted out of) a bidding war on a €900,000 house in February, the deal went through a few weeks later. Driving past it today, Mrs. Whathome noticed that it had not been touched, weeds in the garden etc. So she cheekily stopped and took a closer look and it's vacant.

No building work, no furniture. It's exactly as it was in Feb. I'm not saying it was definitely a speculator however.

With IO mortgages I wonder if there are many people taking big short-term bets on Dublin property?

Would be interesting to see a property coming back on the market which i lost the bidding war to. And at a lower price.
 
Why are German yields 6% and ours 3% - easy...the Germans have strict tenancy laws...making the tenant all powerful (hence the high rental figures)..German property looks cheap as a result. I would be VERY careful buying here as you may be buying the most illiquid of assets. Also, when Hanz from Munich wants his Bosch dishwasher upgraded..don't expect to get away with a Zanussi...
Firefly

Yes completely agree with you. (having researched the market). Did you know that it can also take a year to kick Hanz out if he is not paying rent?
Thats why i went for commercial property.

Having said that if i had a sufficient lump sum and wanted a income generating investment and also with a view to passing it on as an inheritance i would choose a small block of apartments in Hamburg.

But back to the Irish market...
 
Firefly
German apartments come unfurnished - if one is lucky, one might get a cooker. Hans will have to buy his own washing machine.

(Edit: replying/following on to StoppedClock below - but as this is off topic I'll stick it in here)
Other points of note regarding German tenants - many of my German friends have to fully repaint their apartments themselves when they move, as part of their contracts. Also where Irish tenants have a tendency to think "Christ I have to pay rent! - I'm going to screw the Landlord for everything I can", Germans have a renting culture and don't seem have that sense of entitlement, IME. Give me a German tenant any day.
(Also if anyone here has to rent an apartment in Germany - a good tip is not to mention the fact that you are Irish, in case they have had any experience of Irish tenants).
 
Firefly
German apartments come unfurnished - if one is lucky, one might get a cooker. Hans will have to buy his own washing machine.

Lucky to get a kitchen, it is not at all unusual for there to be no cooker or work surfaces, cupboards etc.


Also Firefly it is very common to sell with sitting tenant so it could be argued that BTL in Germany is less illiquid than equivalent here.
 
..............

Poppycock. The property market is in no way homogenous. We've recently sold a three bedroomed townhouse in Ballina that was bought back in 1990 just before the market started to take off. Taking inflation into account, it probably only appreciated 15-20% in real terms (attributable to higher incomes rather than any sort of property bubble). The reason? No one viewed the market for property in that area as speculatory. I never knew a single person in the town who bought a property there for capital appreciation.

Fats : What's all that about ????????????


As for "the coming correction".

There's no such thing as a sure thing. By closing your eyes completely to the idea of a soft-landing, you're proving yourself to be just as blind and ignorant as the property bears out there.

Fats : Sounds like your fully invested....very scared ....and hoping for the best with your eyes closed tight.

Don't be so patronising, you neither have the wit nor the intelligence to pull it off.

Fats : Perhaps we have something in common. then...............Apologies if I've ruffled your feathers.
 
Far fewer First Time Buyers in coming years?

I was thinking about how the baby boom from the 70's has worked it's way through the various obsessions that have taken Ireland.

DMcW makes reference to it here, pubs closing etc.:
http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/Articles/view.asp?CategoryID=-1&CategoryName=&ArticleID=267

Is property just the latest obsession because a glut of people at the "that" age need to buy property?

Nobody talks about the college points race anymore - because there are far fewer people in "that" age bracket and there is a surplus of college places.

Do you remember Superpubs?

In a few years, will people be saying "Do you remember the proberty bubble?"

With far fewer FTB's coming on the scene, who will prop up the market?
 
That is why there are empty blocks in Sandymount, huge vacancy levels in the new build in areas such as Smithfield..... This is one of the myths propagated by the EA's which causes some investors to still believe that
there is a shortage...

Where are the empty blocks in Sandymount? If your referring to a previous post of mine I said........the builder kept the block, it remained empty and then he decided to rent out all the apartments himself.
 
Where are the empty blocks in Sandymount? If your referring to a previous post of mine I said........the builder kept the block, it remained empty and then he decided to rent out all the apartments himself.

I noticed another block in Clontarf of about 20 apartments. I think they were sold about a year ago but most of them are vacant!
 
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The above house has been for sale all summer (sine May I believe). As with most properties everywhere, the asking price is ridiculous, however it's in a very popluar area and I'm certain that this time last year it would have sold, or at least had sale agreed by now. Wonder how long it will take to sell? Will there be a big rush in September to snap it up? Will they have to reduce the asking price? So far, it looks that way.

A pal went to see a nice house in Knocklyon few weeks back. She said there were loads of people viewing but no offers. The Ea has been calling trying to encourage her to buy. She's decided not to.
 
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The above house has been for sale all summer (sine May I believe). Will they have to reduce the asking price? So far, it looks that way.

Looks like it's ex-rental, investor selling up. We should watch this one for a price drop! There is so much unsold property sitting on the market coming into the autumn season, far more than previous years IMO. The market was so strong in previous years, that it didn't slow as much in the summer.
 
Yeah, I really think we are corner a turning

A friend of mine bought a place in Shankill this time last year for 365K.

Theere are now two identical houses on the same estate for sale on Myhome. One is asking 475K. The other is asking in excess of 530K (although it was 550k according to google cache), and has been sitting there for 2 months.

So a supposedly 45% increase on this estate in the space of a year assuming they get the crazy 530K asking price.
It seems like things just went nuts the first half of this year. Final crazy spurt before things dry up.

(What's also amazing is there is a 55K difference in asking price between the asking price of the two identical houses currently for sale. Really shows how no one know what houses are worth at the moment)
 
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This block is mostly empty, you can easily see into them from the road.

€548K for a one bed in Clontarf!!!

Properties like these surely have a long way to fall in any downturn, just who would pay that for a one bed apartment 657 sq foot in Clontarf D3 Ireland???, crazy, absolutely crazy.
 
The Girlfriends father is a director in a very large building firm in Ireland.

About 2 months ago he disagreed with my view that we were heading for a property price correction, in fact he laughed lamenting that he couldn't see the end in sight!

Last week that firm cancelled all of it plans to build residential apartments in 2007. It also pulled out of several bidding wars that they were in trying to get land in dublin. They have also brought forward the completion dates of its existing apartment developments. In fact they have increased the workforce by 50% to get two large apartment blocks finished by the end of the year.

That to me is a worrying sign! to say the least.

A Friend of mine has just finished a 3 year degree (diploma) in architectural technology. hes a good friend of mine but i wouldn't let him near plans for a house with a 40 foot barge pole. Yet he is 22 years old who bearly passed a pass degree and several firms are offering him approx 35K with absolutely no experience to work for them!

This reminds me of IT graduates before the dotcom burst.
 
A Friend of mine has just finished a 3 year degree (diploma) in architectural technology. hes a good friend of mine but i wouldn't let him near plans for a house with a 40 foot barge pole. Yet he is 22 years old who bearly passed a pass degree and several firms are offering him approx 35K with absolutely no experience to work for them!

...what has that got to do with anything?
 
Whathome, I totally agree with you - the biggest wedge of population in ireland is 28-35 and are obsessed with property. The trick is going to be to target the next obsession...ask the folks what they were into when they were 40...if they can remember! Reckon private health care...maybe we should be investimg in nursing homes (kinda ties in with property)


Firefly
 
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