I’d appreciate some advice.
I bought a 1 bed apartment in summer 2005 for 355k, in a nice apartment complex in the bad end of D4.
I know it’s gone down, but luckily it wasn’t anywhere close to a 100% mortgage so I’m not in NE, not yet anyway. It’s a 1 bed, and I’ll be wanting to get into a 2bed at least as I’ll be starting a family, probably within 3 or 4 years.
If I hang on, I think that things will keep going down and I’ll lose even more of my equity.
If I sell, I take the hit now.
Unfortunately there are also still new, empty apartments for sale in my complex, going for roughly 20K less than I bought at.
I assume the asking prices are taking the mickey nowadays anyway. So if I undercut it by another 20K, then I’d be taking a 40K loss. Is it even likely to sell at that price? I guess the best way to find out jsut to put it on the market and find see.
If I do sell it, I can rent in the short term, and maybe buy again in 3 years or so.
Does this sound sane? Should I be rushing to get out of where I am, considering i have nothing tieing it to me, I might need to just accept my loses now.
Are there any obvious things I’ve totally missed here? I’ve tried to read as many threads as possible before posting this…
I’d be worried at the fact that you’re trying to sell a 1-bed place. Of everything that’s on the market, I’d say that it’s going to be the slowest moving property on the market. To be honest, I can’t see you getting anything more than 250k, which leaves you down 100k.
If I was in your position, I’d undercut by 50k first and then by increments of 20k per month until the place sold. I’m sorry that you might be in a position of feeling some pain due to the crunch and I’m only trying to offer advice. I’m definitely not trying to cause offense in case you think I am.
In watching the price drop forums I’ve seen places in commuter counties go from what I thought was cheap (3 bed semi-ds for 240k) to much cheaper (165k for houses in the same area if you’re wondering). I can’t advise you on how the “bad end of D4” will do, I’m just passing on my thoughts.
Definitely, try to sell now and take the hit. You’ll be lucky to sell though I think. How secure is your job? This factor may accelerate your decision.
Will the rent cover your mortgage payments?
If so rent it out if you can and downgrade yourself and stick it out long term.The rental market in Ballsbridge has 71 one beds to rent on Daft, prices seem to be from 900 pm upwards. I don’t know whether this is slow if so you’ll have to undercut.
If you bought at 355k and others are on sale for 20k less and still there then you will have to go way down to 250k I would say. Nice location that it may be it’s still a one bed apartment.
Other option - stay put for the 2 or 3 years and review, if your job is secure and you can pay your mortgage then you are not in a bad position.
My job seems very secure, thankfully. Most of our business is outside of ireland, and we’re rapidly (but controllably) expanding. Though who ever really knows tbh.
I’m very fortunate in that I could take a 100K loss - that would be the entirety of my original equity gone, but at least I wouldn’t owe the bank anything. -100K in 3 years is good going
Renting it even at 1200 a month (not a chance) wouldn’t quite cover my mortgage.
I’ve recently got engaged, so I would like to buy some place with the future missus where we can fit a family. So I don’t think trying to stick it out is the way to go, as I’m going to have the take the hit eventually when trying to buy somewhere bigger in a few years.
So I’m thinking sell it, take the 100K hit if I have to, be a bit sad about it, and move on
Can anyone advise if I should try and start selling now, or is it pointless before sales pick up in January, and would just mean the apartment is on the market for longer, which looks bad to buyers, right?
Although I dont disagree that property is way over valued, even at present for obvious reasons, I dont know how anyone can know what the clearing prices are without any real information?
Is this anecdotal, or just a guess?
I’m interested in this because we bought in 2005 (2 bed in swords) … I know now that in the long term we will more than likely face NE, although not sure at present because of the lack of information.
I started reading the Pin around a year ago, unfortunately getting the missis to agree to sell up was futile at best.
I got the chance to watch Liz O’Kane on the afternoon show yesterday and she is a “property expert” heres what Liz would tell you to do to shift the place
" Paint your door a different colour… Get rid of the clutter… Buy some potted plants…"
Now if that does’nt shift your place I don’t know what will
Put it on the market now, there’s no harm in it. Price aggressively, nothing is selling at asking price, but you may hook a bottom feeder. I do however fear that your property may be unsaleable. Don’t forget that a 1 bedroom is toxic in the eyes of most people, and indeed, the banks.
You bought a place to live and I’m sorry to say it but you paid too much.
The price of your apartment will return to mean. Mean would put it below 100,000.
If you expect prices to stabilise or return to what they were then forget about it. They will not be returning, not in our life times anyway. You will need an uber bubble to see those prices again and uber bubbles are extremely rare.
If you want to cut your looses then sell ASAP. Every week you wait will see a lower attainable price. If you rent it out you will loose hundreds of thousands.
Your biggest enemy now is Cognitive Dissonance. However, it is also your friend. As long as other people have it then it gives you the chance to shake it off and act while others refuse to face reality.
Sorry to say though, I doubt a 40k drop will do the trick.
Let us know how you get on. Good luck.
I’m not in the EA business but I’m familiar with the experience of a number of people I know who have sold property in Dublin very recently (last few weeks) with asking prices in the 300-400k region, so it is anecdotal. They’ve all managed to sell at discounts ranging between 25% to 35%. As you must know, there is no reliable sales price information for houses in Ireland.
In the New Year, with interest rates set to fall very sharply, there may be a lift in the market. Then again, as the true state of Ireland’s budgetary collapse becomes better and more widely understood, the few buyers out there might go back into their foxholes. So these factors may balance themselves out.
I continue to rely on the 1981-1987 Irish property bust as my template, when real (i.e. inflation adjusted) prices fell 45-50% from peak to trough. I expect this one to last as long and for real falls to be in the same region.
Take the hit now or take a much bigger hit later? Your call. Personally I’d be trying to get out now rather than chasing the market down - particularly because it might not be too long before negative equity looms.
if you can afford to keep it i would ride market to bottom and back up again but you may be looking at 5 - 10 year time period
depends on your personal circumstances i suppose
Ok.
The down side is he could end with an unsellable gaff in a country that has gone from persistant high employment to persistant high unemployment. Or end with a gaff worth 1/5th of the value he paid and therefore end paying a bank back hundreds of thousands for the rest of his working life.
What’s the up side? Try not to make us laugh.
Bertie - making him cry or jump off a bridge not a solution either!
Quozi - Cannot think of what advice to give as very little said will help…its a sh*t one alrite
Bertie - making him cry or jump off a bridge not a solution either! 
Cannot think of what advice to give as very little said will help…its a sh*t one alrite