The latest Daft House Price Report, for Q3 2010, is out and this post reviews its main findings, including signs of easing price falls in Dublin and the likelihood of sellers finding a buyer. It also updates previous estimates of the number of households in negative equity, now over 200,000. The main worry has to be the number in severe negative equity of €50,000 or more, estimated at 100,000.
This post revisits the claim made, a year ago, that NAMA only requires a recovery in property values of 10% in 10 years. The 15% fall in home values since has already pushed that out and a further 10% fall in 2011, as is likely, means that NAMA will require a new boom – 4% a year, every year till 2020 – to break even.
This post reviews the latest Daft Rental Report. It finds good news for tenants, including new and returning students, who face lower rents for the third year in a row, and good news for landlords, with rents largely static for the second report in a row. The total level of supply, however, means that the rental market is still very fragile.
This post reviews the findings in the latest Daft.ie House Price Report, for Q2 2010, finding news for both optimists and pessimists in average prices and the level of transactions. The report’s commentary is by Jim Power, who discusses the need for a property tax. The remainder of the post reviews the arguments in favour of a property tax in Ireland and recommends the introduction of a land value tax.
This post reviews the first 5,000 entries in the rent-or-buy calculator put up on the site in April. While almost half of all entries were considering a loan-to-value of 90%-95%, many of those are looking at terms of 25 years or less – a sign that times have changed. Those who changed the defaults were generally more pessimistic about the future growth of house prices (and rents). The calculator has been quite balanced in its results, with the ‘buys’ having the slight edge over the ‘rents’ at this point.
This post reviews the latest Daft Report, on the rental market in Q1 2010, released this morning. Overall, it finds that rents have been stabilising, particularly in the city areas. The market remains fragile, though, with the total number of properties available to rent outside the main cities well above the number of monthly transactions. The post finishes by looking at what’s happened the dishwasher premium over the course of the recession.
This post launches a rent-or-buy calculator that allows people to put in their own details, including assumptions about interest rates and growth in house prices and rents over the coming decades, and compares their wealth at the end of the period if they rented or bought. It also discusses some of the assumptions underpinning the calculator and answers to FAQs about it.
This post reviews the latest Daft Report, released this morning, which finds that asking prices are one third below their peak on average. Of encouragement to all parties is the high levels of transactions, with one in three properties posted in January either sold or sale agreed already. It also discusses Brian Lucey’s commentary, which outlines implications for NAMA.
This post looks at the figures behind the first tranche of NAMA’s loans and whether they suggest that NAMA is driving a hard bargain for the taxpayer. It finds that the EU’s guidelines on discounting mean long-term economic value is ultimately lower than current value not higher. It also outlines how the first tranche of loans may be entirely unrepresentative of future tranches.
This post takes five sample properties in Dublin and explores the rent-or-buy question. It first explains why potential first-time buyers should care about rents and shows how current yields in residential property compare with mortgage costs and yields at the height of the boom. It then examines the 25-year costs of renting or buying, before discussing some of the wider economic benefits of a nation of renters.
