We were asked to take part in an interview on Primetime about house prices and whether or not they were starting to show signs of falling. Our view is that they will fall in time (probably in a damaging way) but that it won’t be soon because supply is still above demand and price indicators like rents are still rising. This is damaging for first time buyers and those stuck paying high rents.
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.
In the second instalment on pensions we looked at the situation people may find themselves in if they have waited until their 40’s or 50’s to start saving towards retirement. There are some scary valid concerns but also some good news when it comes to retirement provision started late.
This week on Drivetime’s ‘Talking Money’ we were discussing water charges, the prices have been published today, we were working on the only indicative price available before this which was published by the Commission for Energy Regulation.
The politics of this weren’t considered, we just looked at costs and the alternative costs of substitution by digging wells, rain water harvesting or the use of septic tanks. The findings show that water is fairly cheap compared to the cost of getting it by your own means.
On this weeks ‘Talking Money’ which is a regular contribution to RTE’s Drivetime we covered the topic of savings rates. Last week we looked at what low rates does to debt (makes it more manageable), the flip-side to that coin is the savers market and now savers are stuck looking for a return that isn’t forthcoming from deposit rates. So how do you outperform? We had a few ideas, but the news is always the same, you have to take on risk to get higher return.
We were asked to appear on RTE’s ‘Morning Edition’ to review the newspaper stories of the day. Brian Byrne from the Independent group and Karl Deeter discussed a variety of topics from medical staff top-up’s to locked in syndrome and the story of Gavin Glynn a child with a rare form of cancer.
Anthony Murnane was presenting RTE’s ‘Morning Edition’ on the 12th of March and had The Mail On Sunday assistant editor Enda Leahy and Karl Deeter on to discuss the topics of the day.
We were asked to do the newspaper review on RTE’s ‘Morning Edition’ with Keelin Shanely. Siobhan Maguire, consumer affairs correspondent with the Sunday Times and Karl Deeter (of this parish) looked at the days headlines.
Adam Maguire mentioned the research we did with Brian Lucey and Marie Hunt. The main points considered are why people don’t sell loss making properties?
There are complex decisions and emotions behind this and our research was only the tip of the iceberg (although the first of it’s type in Ireland).