House Market Weakening?

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See this is why I don't want to buy an apartment. When you ask the estate agent a question about management fees and the management set up of the apartment and they fumble it, you know it's time to go. Unfortunately, there's always someone else lined up to risk it.
 
2Pack said:
Noel Ahern, Minister for housing, has this report quantifying the figure as 40% of all Co. Dublin apartments but heck he won't release it will he
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Would a FOI request force him to publish it?
 
a combination FOI and a well phrased question in the Dáil is what is required.

The FOI should request all reports in their possession and collated thus.

1. Has the Minister for Housing or any other official of the Department of Housing or of the Department of the Environment commissioned a survey of multiple ownership blocks in the state with a view to determining the ongoing functionality of their Mananagement Entity .
2. Does the Dept contract this out and to whom.
3. Does the Dept require that reports be submiitted by any agency on a periodic bases , if so whom.
4. In the absence of 2 or 3 does the Dept produce internal estimates of functional or ofdysfunctional Management companies.
5. How are the statistics formulated.
6. Who checks them


The Dept of Housing had better start to get the finger out anyway. They assume these things take care of themselves when they obviously do not.

An Apartment Dwelling Citizenship Course should be mandatory for all owners of an apartment with a shared Management Company. If it ran for 2 years (about 4 evenings worth) and you got a cert to show you finished it then you should be given a full tax break on the course and maybe a few quid on top for the hassle . Of course once you have the cert you have no excuse either

We are becoming a nation of urbanised apartment dwellers and its high time we accepted the consequences of that.

If Noel Ahern was any good he would have the course running in EVERY IT and in EVERY PLC college in the country by September. He is afraid to touch the issue in case it blows up on him before the election.

Look at the stats , http://www.environ.ie/DOEI/doeipub.nsf/0/daac160e1d73c27d80256f0f003dbc05/$FILE/2006%2001%20DOEHLG%20Construction%20Indicators%20Issue%204%20Final.pdf (between 1 in 3 and 1 in 4 permissions nowadays are for apartments .)
 
To be objective, Biffo is quite correct. The phasing out of tax reliefs is gradual and if he responds to the baying crowd (posters here and the ECB) with more measures the may have a cumulative effect and precipitate a crash. That said I think we are in for a crash anyway and then stagnation stretching for decades as demographics play against the market.
 
Guys

I'm really puzzled by this 15% vacant number. If it really is true, there would be swathes of empty apartments all over the country which frankly I don't really see. I live in an area of Dublin with older houses and I think all of them in our street and the immediate area are occupied.

So the vacancies must be in new builds. Does anyone live in a new build block with lots of empty units? Do you believe this 15% number?
 
I can quite easily belive this figure, neffa. I live on a private housing estate, built about 15 years ago, and there are a multitude of houses empty, mostly ones that are owned by BTL investors. also, there have been huge developments of apartment blocks in the centre of the city I live in, and from visiting friends who live there, I am reliably informed (and can see for myself, obviously) that anywhere from 2 or 3 apartments to over 50% of the entire development are vacant.
Some new developments of estates were built up to 5 years ago in my locality, and the builders - yes, thats right, the original builders, not owners who have decided to sell up and move on - are still trying to offload some houses that never sold.
 
Those stories are quite incredible, obviously these investors have incredible cashflows (or had allowing them to make the original purchase). Some of these people will never sell up I believe but many of them will when rises cool off and the ECB return to normal rates. Then if prices start to drop will the 'never sell' brigade then start to ponder the wisdom of having an investment which is burning cash? I suspect not but we will have to see.

Also all these vacant houses makes a bit of a mockery of our 50k+ waiting list for housing IMO
 
It's instructive to walk around Smithfield in the late evening - many (if not most) of the massive new apartment construction in that area has now been finished, but you will notice that the place is dead. There aren't all that many lights on in the complexes. Fresh (the new supermarket) is mostly empty. It's only anecdotal evidence I agree, but it strikes me that most of the place is lying empty.
 
I've been keeping an eye on daft for the past 6 months or so. Back in January, when I started looking first, there were around 3000 properties available for rent in the Dublin area. In the last month, that has increased to more than 4000. Admittedly there is a seasonal element to this but this still represents a big increase.

It will be interesting to see if this is maintained over the summer months
 
gearoidmm said:
It will be interesting to see if this is maintained over the summer months
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Coul this be explained by students leaving rented accomodation for the summer?
 
whizzbang said:
Coul this be explained by students leaving rented accomodation for the summer?
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Could be, but more and more students are starting to reside on campus (this will only increase in future years with the plans that DIT have and UCD are throwing up lots more units as we speak). I have been keeping an eye on a particular complex at the moment which I pass every so often, namely Trimbleston in Goatstown. 2 beds are now being offered from 1350 a month and they are coming up every day in daft. When they first came on the market some were looking for 1700-1800 for a 2 bed. There is going to be an avalanche of apartments in the general Sandyford/Stillorgan area coming on stream in the next 1-3 years so I can't see there being a decrease in the amount of vacant properties anytime soon.
 
Doughiska in Galway City is raddled with empties owned by the post punitive stamp duty 2002 BTL types.

Many were never let and are totally unfurnished and left there a few years or (very oddly) semi-furnished as if they were thinking of letting them but never bothered with it .
 
This apartment near me was listed for sale 2-3 months ago for 1.2 million. Now on the market for just 995,000. Possibly that they priced it way too high to start but interesting all the same

[broken link removed]
 
Yes I would have thought that it could have been a bit of a 'test the water' asking price originally though I think one would still be mad to purchase at this price. I have heard anecdotally that penthouses are not making as big as gains as the general market (I know this is probably linked to mmgt fees etc).

It will be interesting to see if a property like this stays on the market in one of Dublin's most desirable locations
 
I think we are starting to see the gap starting to widen between apts and semi-d houses (with gardens) as the baby boom generation of the early-mid 70's start to nest. IMO, the coming months, we may see semi-d market explode.

EDIT: Or implode.
 
Some of the rewards of Ireland's accelerating debt and house prices


Better keep those house prices moving upwards, otherwise elite pay packets might suffer
 
That "penthouse" looks like a "madams boudoir" AKA brothel to me - I continue to be amazed at the "value" a million euro gets in Ireland today
 
Contrast that with three 1-bed apartments available for sale in Mount St Annes - average size 520 sq feet, priced at 500-525,000.

That's completely crazy, but someone will probably pay that much
 
Remix said:
Some of the rewards of Ireland's accelerating debt and house prices
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Presumably when the market collapses Goggin's salarly will be docked in the same manner ... ahem.
 
room305 said:
Presumably when the market collapses Goggin's salarly will be docked in the same manner ... ahem.
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For Ireland's banking and property elites, my crystal ball foresees a timely exit and involvement with Bermuda, beaches, boats, banks and bikinis.
 
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