Confidence Builds In The Irish Property Recovery
News Posted On: 07 May 2012
The Irish property market may have been one of the hardest hit by the crisis and maybe that is why now, when we hear tell of a bottom that those reports are so much more believable than normal, for example when similar reports recently emanated about the US market.
Unlike most markets, Ireland was quick to accept that its property market could no longer operate in the same way as it had been, which allowed for a quick and decisive response. Ireland froze construction for five years and purged lenders of 74-billion Euros (US$98-billion) of mostly toxic commercial mortgages into a “bad bank”, while pouring enough cash into the financial system to make it among the best capitalized in Europe. In Spain for example they are still building, still touring the world trying to bring back the foreigners, and still saying that prices have only fallen by 22%.
In Ireland prices have fallen by well over 50%, but now it seems that they may fall little further. Last month for the first time prices didn't fall, and price rose on the month in Dublin, which was perhaps the biggest indication of a bottom, as Dublin had registered the biggest contractions month-in-month out for ages.
But the latest indication of a healthier outlook was the successful sale of one of Ireland's many ghost estates left behind as developers ran out of money or as construction was frozen.
"It was a good day," said the man who bought the derelict estate at auction. The Northern Ireland developer, who wanted to remain anonymous, paid 122,500 euros (99,481 pounds) for three unfinished houses and a four-acre plot of land in County Cavan in the north of the country last Thursday, telling Reuters he believes the market has hit the bottom.
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Written by Liam Bailey
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