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News Headlines to Jan 16 2008
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Irish House Industry survey says about
40,000 apartments in Dublin are vacant
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With
an estimated 10,000 unsold new apartments in the Dublin
area, builders are opting to rent them out rather
than try to sell them. The former gasholder at Ringsend is one of a number of newly built apartment
buildings in Dublin that is lying empty as
developers adopt a wait-and-see approach in the
ailing new homes market.
The owner of the
apartments within the former gasholder structure has
been seeking to convert the building to either to a
hotel or hospital. |
House prices in Dublin fell by 10 per cent
on average last year, and estate agents
forecast a further decline of about 4 per
cent in 2008.
Apartment
owners fared even worse, with the price of
second-hand apartments in the capital
falling by as much as 17 per cent.
There are about
40,000 vacant apartments in Dublin
which are "causing concern that
prices have some way to correct before
activity is restored and prices are
stabilised," according to the annual
price survey of the Irish Auctioneers and
Valuers Institute (IAVI).
It was
reported last November that there are 10,000
new vacant apartments in Dublin.
The report
has not been uploaded on the IAVI website.
Price falls
reported by IAVI members effectively wiped
out all the gains made by the market in
2006.
House prices in Dublin fell
by 10 per cent on average in
2007 and estate agents
forecast a further fall of
about 4 per cent in 2008.
Apartment owners fared even
worse, with the price of
second-hand apartments in
the capital falling by as
much as 17 per cent.
Activity
levels in Dublin dropped by between 15 and
60 per cent, depending on the market
segment.
Aside from
apartments, prices for homes at the higher
end of the Dublin market - between €4
million and €7 million - fell 20 per cent in
2007.
The report
says that "members are unanimous in
agreeing that this reflects a correction of
unrealistic price levels during 2006".
Estate agents
from outside Dublin also reported that
prices did not fall as badly as in the
capital.
The value of
residential sites dropped by between 10 and
15 per cent outside Dublin, and by 16 to 19
per cent in the capital.
Rents,
however, continued to rise, according to the
IAVI data, increasing by between 3.3 and 4.2
per cent across the country.
IAVI president
Robert Ganly commented:
"Overall, I would say to people that the
market is beginning to stabilise. The worst
is over."
He said that
the absence of further rises in interest
rates and the reformed stamp duty regime to
provide some support, alongside "strong
latent demand from young couples who put off
purchasing in 2007".
While prices
would continue to fall in 2008, "this
levelling off should begin to reverse itself
in early 2009, and we would hope to see the
property market growing again some time
during that year".
However, the
report says investors are likely to be more
cautious about re-entering the market,
limiting growth rates in prices in the
immediate future.
Ganly said
the impact of the Government's stamp duty
reforms had yet to be felt.
"We feel
that these will have a measurable, positive
impact on the residential market, although
there is more that the Government could do
to help other sectors," he said.
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