Pat Kenny had Irish Mortgage Brokers on the show to discuss NAMA, their role in building new housing and to consider some of the positives and negatives of this approach.
Irish Independent feature Irish Mortgage Brokers
We were asked for comment on housing recently by the Irish Independent and had this to say on social housing: Karl Deeter, of Irish Mortgage Brokers, suggests that sites be released for social and affordable housing schemes, or private homes, in return for equity. Developers would have little cause for complaint.
“On a vacant site (in Dublin city centre), you could build an eight-storey building with 75pc of the building rented at 20pc below market, and for the rest you have a guaranteed upward-only rent review of 2pc a year,” he says. “If we do it on a build to sell, or build to rent, we share the profits..
“We need to flood the land market. People want to talk about the law of the jungle, but you can’t be a lion, and when a rhino comes along you complain.
The general view in our opinion is that much of the malaise always comes back to the base element of housing which is land.
The Stand with Eamon Dunphy talks to Karl Deeter
The Stand with Eamon Dunphy is a podcast which looks at sports and current affairs, in episode 83 Eamon spoke to Karl Deeter about housing and the release of his new book co-written with Charlie Weston ‘This book is worth €25,000’.
Primetime features Irish Mortgage Brokers on property tax, 26th September 2017
We were pleased to take part in a debate about property tax on Primetime this week. The main point we would hope to make is that property tax based on market values should naturally rise when prices rise the same as income tax paid increases as income goes up, this is the logical conclusion in our view. Some people don’t want it to go up even after it was artificially frozen for political reasons several years ago, we see this for what it is, electioneering and populism. Strong municipal and local government need this funding and should be allowed to decide the sums for themselves, keeping it artificially low only creates a different set of problems in the future.
Is a ten year fixed rate a good idea?
Recently KBC introduced a 10 year fixed rate, they are not the first back to have done this, in the past other banks had them but their prices were high, the difference today is that you can get a 10 year fixed rate mortgage for below 3% and that means it’s worth considering.
First of all, why would you want to fix for so long? Obviously the longevity of a guaranteed price in a world where rates are expected to rise over time makes it attractive. This has to be balanced against the likelihood of competitive forces driving down Irish mortgage rates. Currently there is upside down pricing where fixed rates are cheaper than variable rates, how long this will last is anybody’s guess.
What we can do is look at the yield curve in order to get an idea of when rates might go up. Looking at that curve today (the quote date is from the 22nd which is last Friday) we see that yields are still negative a full six years into the future. What …
Brendan Burgess makes a ‘Tax Payers proposal for the budget’
Brendan Burgess of AskAboutMoney.com wrote an interesting ‘tax payer’ oriented budget submission, you can make up your own mind on it, details are below.
Mr Paschal Donohue Minister for Finance By email minister@finance.gov.ie 2018 Pre-budget submission on behalf of the Irish taxpayer
11th September 2017
Dear Mr Donohue
All the pre-Budget submissions you receive will be calling for increased expenditure. But there is no one representing the unfortunate taxpayer who will foot the bill for this expenditure. There is no one arguing the very obvious point that we are spending well beyond our means. So I have taken it upon myself to make a submission on behalf of the Irish taxpayer. Key points • With a national debt of €200 billion, there is a clear and present danger to the economy – so tax cuts in 2018 or 2019 would be irresponsible. • You are making the same mistakes which Fianna Fáil were vilified for making during the Celtic Tiger budgets – increasing permanent spending based on temporarily high tax receipts. • Social welfare payments are far higher than in …
This book is worth €25,000 launches today!
We are pleased to see a book by our own Karl Deeter and Charlie Weston of the Independent launch today. They started off with an interview with Sean O’Rourke on RTE Radio 1.
The clip is below, the launch is in Hodges Figgis at 18:30 today
Non-credit fuelled booms
There has been an ongoing narrative that the last housing boom (and many others) was only possible due to excessive credit. We have argued for a long time that this is a mistaken interpretation. While credit can make a bad situation worse, just like adding fuel to a flame, it is not the genesis of the problem.
We were pleased to see this view articulated by the Central Bank Governor Philip Lane recently. He stated that “cash buyers of property are limiting the ability of the Central Bank to control house prices through mortgage lending rules” he “singled out cash buyers as one of the key drivers of inflation in the Irish property market. Cash buyers used to account for about 25 per cent of house purchases in Ireland, but since the crash and ensuing credit crunch this figure has risen to 60 per cent“.
This is a point we have been making for years, firstly was that first time buyers are not, and have not been the problem. That was part of why we were specifically …
TodayFM ‘The Last Word’ features Irish Mortgage Brokers
We were asked to take part in a segment called ‘Home Truths’ on TodayFM during the Last Word with Matt Cooper. The segment featured Karl Deeter and David Silke from the housing agency.
We were discussing the rental market and certain issues that go along with it, our main point is that there shouldn’t be a housing crisis, but that we managed to manufacture one.
The audio clip has the full segment on it.
Discussing pay-gaps in the Sunday Independent
One of the most infuriating things a person could hear is that they are not being paid on par with another person who has the same qualifications and who does the same job. This is why we have to be so careful about declaring the accuracy of pay-gaps when examining statistics.
Karl Deeter laid out the statistical issues in this are in the Sunday Independent this week and showed that for a myriad of reasons women can appear to be paid less than men but that in part it’s due to how we collect the statistics rather than due to any undercutting of earnings by women based on their gender.
The extract it starts with is below, the full article is in the link at the end of the extract.
Logically, if it was cheaper to hire women than men you would never hire men as the savings would be too great, unless a business values misogyny over capital. I say that not as an objective analyst, but as a business owner who values capital. Paying a person less for …