Property market's no house of cards (Indo)

[bedsit]

This article from Ken McDonald of Hooke & MacDonald fame in the Sunday Independent today smacks of desperation!!

unison.ie/irish_independent/ … e_id=15411

[rock3r]

Suggestion: post a few selected sentences to give us a better sense of the content of the article.

Some of us don’t have the time or the inclination to subscribe. Every subscriber is counted as a material gain by the paper involved, and some of us would rather not give them a perceived material gain.

[Diatom]

While I generally agree, will cutting and pasting cause “© Copyright Unison.ie” issues?

(actually looking for clarification because I am a big cutter and paster)

[rock3r]

Posting small snippets for the purposes of fair comment is legal.

[Duplex]

Trust me I’m an Estate Agent.

Since the start of this year the hysterical negativity has risen to a crescendo from some quarters, lacking balance and an appreciation of the intricacies of theresidential market. Price moderation is mistaken for weakness, when in fact it represents maturity and long-term sustainability.

The residential market in spring of last year was overheated and dangerously so. Fortunately, sanity has been restored to it and today’s market compares very favourably with the more stable markets of 2004 and 2005. It makes no sense to compare it to the inflationary market of 2006.

A much-publicised recent survey on the market implied that since asking prices had dropped in certain locations around Ireland it meant that prices and values had dropped. Based on this outlandish concept, if all sellers decided to put up the asking prices by say, 50 per cent, values and prices would have risen by this amount.

Investors play a vital role in purchasing residential properties and placing them on the rental market. They will obviously be active in the Irish market in the years ahead as they see the attractive returns in areas of short supply, close to good transport. Currently investors account for around 25 per cent of new home purchasers and despitereports to the contrary,this number is not decreasing.

Politicians won’t face up to the root cause of rising rents and rising prices, namely the shortage of supply caused by an inefficient and anti-development planning system.

Why do we allow scaremongers and doomsayers with unfounded pessimism and unbridled negativity dictate our thinking and blunt consumer confidence? The Irish economy is the envy of the world. Job creation is phenomenal with more than 7,000 new jobs being created each month - despite the gloomy attention given to periodic job losses in some sectors.

Unemployment stands at 4.1 per cent, the lowest in Europe; there are 750,000 more people in the workplace than a decade ago. We have revitalised cities and towns, a conveyor belt of entrepreneurial business people operating successfully on a world stage, a rich cultural and artistic heritage, a vibrant talented young population, rising by almost 100,000 per year, confident in their own and their country’s destiny. We should be celebrating our success on a daily basis. In any event, the Irish love affair with property will continue undaunted despite the knockers.

Ken MacDonald is MD of

Hooke & MacDonald, specialists in the sale of new homes.

[Green_Bear]

Some areas where supply is very strong will have no appreciation this year and may decrease by a few per cent. Asking prices on second-hand properties in some areas are being reduced, but in many cases they were unrealistically pitched in the first place.

Fortunately, most developers decided not to increase prices since mid-2006, which has been very beneficial for first time buyers.

Maybe the environmental health inspectors should be recalled from Galway and inspect the water supply in the Hooke & McDonald offices for Kool-Aid contamination.

Translation: some areas are experiencing supply greater than demand and must drop their prices in order to differentiate their property from their neighbours, I left out that a few per cent can be a number greater than ten.
Greedy sellers were asking too much for second hand properties in the first place, we need to make our numbers and they need to sell.

Its really the builders who set the price and not the buyer, and after decade long price rises have felt sorry for you all you hard pressed first time buyer’s and decided out of the generosity of their hearts to not increase prices.

Forget the doomsayers, falling prices have nothing to do with tighter credit availability due to ECB interest rate rises, record output by the construction industry in 2006, and the slackening of demand among property investors, whose only interest in the market was capital appreciation and the fact that rental yield at current prices is lower than interest rates on some savings offered by the banks.

[whizzbang]

“Currently investors account for around 25 per cent of new home purchasers and despite reports to the contrary,this number is not decreasing.”

Is that because they can’t sell?

edit
It really is shocking that this can be published without a big disclaimer at the start saying who wrote it! How many people actually read the details of the person who wrote the article. I’d say 80% of readers just think this is written by a Sindo Journo…

[Arthur_Daley]

Needs to be read in conjunction with the Sunday Business Post article on ‘vested interests’ for maximum comedic effect.

[redo]

@Duplex

A much-publicised recent survey on the market implied that since asking prices had dropped in certain locations around Ireland it meant that prices and values had dropped. Based on this outlandish concept, if all sellers decided to put up the asking prices by say, 50 per cent, values and prices would have risen by this amount.

If they sold, yes, the prices of houses would have gone up 50%.

[Duplex]

MacDonald doesn’t know what hes talking about. He lives in a world free from the influence of globalisation, vicious competition and cheap labour. He thinks that the world will pay the Irish a premium for their goods and services because, because well because.

[Pill]

We shouldn’t waste our time commenting on this nonsense!

[BillG]

As one who has been involved in the Irish property market for 40 years and has experienced every type of market scenario

There’s one scenario poor old Ken hasn’t experienced and that’s the one he’s going to learn about over the next five years. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks but you can ram it down his greedy throat.

Time’s up Ken, now you’re gonna learn about loss

[Diatom]

The full page ads, the tripe from their economist, now this… anyone else think Hooke & MacDonald is having some cash flow issues?

[random2006]

@whizzbang

“Currently investors account for around 25 per cent of new home purchasers and despite reports to the contrary,this number is not decreasing.”

I thought figures last year said that investors were responsible for 40% of mortgages, presumably a lot of them were for second hand houses. Maybe I am being cynical here but I see a big case for lies, damn lies and statistics. Why has he not mentioned anything about investors in the second hand market? Maybe because they are leaving?
R