(click into the blog post for the video) We were really happy about taking part in panel on the Late Late show on RTE to discuss the rented sector and some of the issues being experienced in it at the moment.
Today FM The Last Word features Irish Mortgage Brokers talking about Ulsterbank loan sale
We were happy to take part in a conversation on the Last Word with Matt Cooper about the recent Ulsterbank loan sale, Karl Deeter was there for Irish Mortgage Brokers and Mick Barry TD was also part of the interview.
Is the Housing Gap Increasing?
With an attempt to lift the housing market out of the current crisis it’s in, the Irish government is left to answer one very important question. Is the Help to Buy scheme even helping?
Or…is it worsening the gap of the home hunters who are looking for the ability to buy?
As what is already well known, house prices are soaring. Without the supply of housing increasing at any fast rate, this will continue to be the case.
Therefore, home prices are continuing to rise, much faster than incomes are rising, and the gap between available homes and affordable homes is continuing to worsen.
When looking at reports from CSO, the average wage in Ireland is €45,075 for a full-time employee. That number is, however, much lower as a median, where most of the working class clusters. The median is found at €28,500. A drastic difference and even more of a surprise when finding that, that means, nearly half the population is below that number.
This is where the Help to Buy scheme comes into play.
Introduced just earlier this …
Renting Becoming Impossible
Renting in Ireland is an extraordinary and surprisingly busy sector to be involved in. A sector that is shrinking at an exceptional rate. But only by individual growing…not by choice.
Recent surveys actually show that the number of available rental properties are at the lowest they have been in recorded history, while at the same time, less than one-third of people renting their homes are renting by choice.
The majority of individuals in rental properties are in it because they either can not afford the mortgage on available homes or have been denied social housing.
Renting is at best, the third choice.
The burden on individuals and families of paying rent also causes for a demanding financial pressure to be put on these renters as ⅓-½ of their paycheck is often seen taken by rent expenses.
Making it a difficulty for individuals to even get into the renting sector as a large portion of their income will essentially be given up.
However, it’s even increasingly difficult for someone looking to branch out of the renting sector to save the allocated …
Current House Price Report
Recently released at the beginning of July 2018 was the housing price report for Q2. Though little differences appear on the surface, there are few small signs signaling a positive overall change in the market.
Home sale prices are currently up when compared to those of just three months to a year previous. This statistic is proven accurate for nearly all parts of the country, that is, with Donegal being an exception. Donegal typically is the outlier of the counties as Brexit is being found to have a strong impact on their housing market.
Because the housing market is still showing sign of increased demand coinciding with a weak development of new homes, it is predicted that the prices will continue to grow. However, with this most recent report from draft.ie, we see that the overall trend may be slowly changing as prices are only 5.6% higher than the current 0% inflation, being the lowest rate of inflation reported in nearly four years.
The last time Ireland has seen a similar situation to the one currently facing the economy was …
Volatile Housing Prices in the Irish Market
Ireland housing price inflation has come to be of large concern to the public as a wider gap of the housing market will likely develop. Currently, central bank lending rules have been established and are beginning to be implemented as a way to slow the rate at which it is increasing.
Housing prices are still on the rise, as they have been in many recent reportings throughout the nation in current times. With tighter bank lending now being enforced more and more at a national level, the rate of inflation throughout Ireland has been seen to finally begin to slow down.
The second quarter of 2018 reported by MyHome.ie showed a steep increase in home prices alongside the slowest pace of inflation to be recorded in over two years.
The steep prices of homes have for a while now, been on the watch by the nation as a housing shortage has been of strong concern, affecting the living standard of many citizens throughout the nation.
As asking price inflation has slowed dramatically, Dublin has been feeling some of the effects.
…
Office Occupancy Cost Seeing a Shift
Rental space is on the rise in the Irish market, though typically assumed strictly to act as homes, there is new research pointing our direction to the office rental markets.
With the latest bi-monthly report recently released by commercial property specialists CBRE, numerous important transactions in multiple sectors of the Ireland commercial property market have been reported.
The report is mostly noted for the strong take-up recorded in the Dublin office market during the beginning of 2018. Dublin is currently ranked 27th for global office occupancy costs, compared to the 29th place they held in the year previous.
This shift to fulfill more and more office space within the city is most likely due to the ease of doing business within the city limits.
By maintaining such a central location, it is made possible for businesses to thrive. Businesses often depend on the resources a city offers, as well as the booming customer base. In the nation of Ireland, Dublin really is the best place for this.
With office rents in the suburbs seen to be at levels currently less …
The Solution to the U.S Down Payment Dilemma
Those looking to buy a home in the States are all currently saying the same thing is holding them back….They can’t seem to afford the down payment.
Down payments on houses can be burdensome and oftentimes weigh on the ability to buy a home. In some cases, it calls for years of disciplined saving. Something that can be difficult for someone who wants a home and wants it now.
That’s where the start-up company Loftium comes in with a solution. This is a business started by 29-year-old Yifan Zhang of Seattle.
As someone who has personally heard her friends talk for years about the down payment dilemma, she finally decided to do something about it.
Zhang started as any other Airbnb business owner. Renting out one room in her townhouse to generate extra cash. Little did she know just how much cash she could actually generate.
Quickly into her business, she was earning enough to completely pay for her mortgage and then have some left over!
That’s when the idea dawned.
Zhang decided to eliminate …
Why the American Housing Market is Crashing
With housing being the most affordable it has been since the mid-1970’s, why are Americans choosing to rent instead of buy?
Many good things are to come by investing property, one of the best ones being the extremely high returns that can be received.
With mortgage rates at an all-time low, many areas with generally inexpensive rental properties are still proving to be more costly to live in, relative to the alternative of buying into the housing market.
The National Association of Realtors is even expecting rent costs to increase up to 5% over the upcoming years, giving any person a difficult purpose to justify renting over buying.
Caitlin McCabe suggests that part of the hardship is a “housing hangover” that was caused by the market crash of ’08. Many American homeowners are still experiencing a considerable loss while they have more to pay on their mortgages then what their home is even worth.
McCabe also did a study in which she found that less than one-third of those that lost their homes due to foreclosure plan to return to …
A loan may be offered to vacant-home owners
In reference to Loan scheme aims to bring vacant homes into use by Paul Melia on 29 June 2017 in Independent.
A possible solution to the shortage of housing in Ireland: a local authority loan could be offered to property owners of vacant housing. This solution came about when it was heard that 80,000 vacant housing was available in high demand urban areas from the 2016 Census. About 100,000 units are vacant in non-urban areas, excluding holiday homes. Data shows Ireland’s vacancy rate is at 9 percent while UK is only at 2.5 percent.
Chairman of the Housing Agency Conor Skehan worries about the impact on Ireland’s competitiveness if the housing shortage issue is not addressed. Affordability is essential to Ireland’s competitiveness and the housing costs drives wage costs so if housing is imbalanced Ireland’s competitiveness may be in trouble.
The one stipulation of this loan is it has to be affordable housing. This could raise the issue to some houses in areas not usually affordable.
This loan, however, can be just what an owner needs to get a …