First time buyers didn't, don't, and won't ever have it easy.

Recently the credit crunch has taken a whole new turn, and the way it is affecting the Irish mortgage market is of interest to anybody who has a mortgage. Today’s post will be about the changing position of first time buyers, the end of 100% mortgages.

First time buyers never had it easy, that’s my theory and here’s why: before stamp duty reform they had to pay for any property that was over €127,000 (an old £100,000 before the €uro came in) and that could not be borrowed, it had to be saved, during the time that prices were in that region the wages were much lower and stamp duty was a definite drawback to prospective home owners, on top of that they had to come up with a deposit of 10% which was also difficult because of the taxation system here. Then we all got a bit more prosperous, the Celtic tiger started to roar, cheap money became available and prices shot up. The old first time buyers were now owner occupiers basking in equity and that was fine, …

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First time buyers didn’t, don’t, and won’t ever have it easy.

Recently the credit crunch has taken a whole new turn, and the way it is affecting the Irish mortgage market is of interest to anybody who has a mortgage. Today’s post will be about the changing position of first time buyers, the end of 100% mortgages.

First time buyers never had it easy, that’s my theory and here’s why: before stamp duty reform they had to pay for any property that was over €127,000 (an old £100,000 before the €uro came in) and that could not be borrowed, it had to be saved, during the time that prices were in that region the wages were much lower and stamp duty was a definite drawback to prospective home owners, on top of that they had to come up with a deposit of 10% which was also difficult because of the taxation system here. Then we all got a bit more prosperous, the Celtic tiger started to roar, cheap money became available and prices shot up. The old first time buyers were now owner occupiers basking in equity and that was fine, …

Read More →

‘For what it’s worth’ the concept of property prices.

There is an unusual disparity at the moment in the property auction market versus the rest of the market, and that primarily lies in the level of houses being withdrawn from auction, in the Irish Times there was a list of properties up for auction, of note, and what wasn’t mentioned in the story was the degree to which properties are being withdrawn. Out of the 32 properties listed 20 were withdrawn, and that means approximately 62.5% must not have been meeting their required price.

of the 12 properties listed in South Dublin only 1 sold, this could be looked at several ways, on one hand the properties in on the South side may be priced into a market that is not accessible to most people to begin with (one listing was €12 million), another is that perhaps the prices there are just too high and they appreciated too fast.

In North Dublin and West Dublin every property listed sold, and again, this can be interpreted different ways, on one hand the prices are …

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'For what it's worth' the concept of property prices.

There is an unusual disparity at the moment in the property auction market versus the rest of the market, and that primarily lies in the level of houses being withdrawn from auction, in the Irish Times there was a list of properties up for auction, of note, and what wasn’t mentioned in the story was the degree to which properties are being withdrawn. Out of the 32 properties listed 20 were withdrawn, and that means approximately 62.5% must not have been meeting their required price.

of the 12 properties listed in South Dublin only 1 sold, this could be looked at several ways, on one hand the properties in on the South side may be priced into a market that is not accessible to most people to begin with (one listing was €12 million), another is that perhaps the prices there are just too high and they appreciated too fast.

In North Dublin and West Dublin every property listed sold, and again, this can be interpreted different ways, on one hand the prices are …

Read More →

Do you need a ‘Reality Check’? Property prices rationalise.

According to Britain’s largest property portal Rightmove.co.uk sellers need a ‘reality check’ when selling their according to a story published by Reuters. In the UK the unsold property stock has reached record proportions, currently it is seeing 35,000 per week come online, rightmove have about 90% of the property listed on the market on their site so it’s an even better indicator than our own versions which would be daft.ie and myhome.ie.

They have said that people need to embrace ‘smart pricing’, here we have taken to calling this ‘priced to sell’ or ‘price adjustment’ but in the end of the day the message is clear, drop your prices if you want to sell. The interesting aspect of the rightmove analysis is that many of the people advertising property are trading up and although they want to buy at a bargain they want to sell for the highest price attainable, its an interesting juxtaposition.

I think we are seeing the same thing in Ireland with sellers hoping for high …

Read More →

Do you need a 'Reality Check'? Property prices rationalise.

According to Britain’s largest property portal Rightmove.co.uk sellers need a ‘reality check’ when selling their according to a story published by Reuters. In the UK the unsold property stock has reached record proportions, currently it is seeing 35,000 per week come online, rightmove have about 90% of the property listed on the market on their site so it’s an even better indicator than our own versions which would be daft.ie and myhome.ie.

They have said that people need to embrace ‘smart pricing’, here we have taken to calling this ‘priced to sell’ or ‘price adjustment’ but in the end of the day the message is clear, drop your prices if you want to sell. The interesting aspect of the rightmove analysis is that many of the people advertising property are trading up and although they want to buy at a bargain they want to sell for the highest price attainable, its an interesting juxtaposition.

I think we are seeing the same thing in Ireland with sellers hoping for high …

Read More →