The government should stay out of the markets full stop!

Interest rates were historically low in Ireland as a result of government meddling and this is what created the bubble… House prices need to lower by another 50% at least in order to stabilise.. They were overvalued to begin with..

“Nearly no one thought that this ladder was going down the basement …” I like it, very nicely put!

It was a game of banking snakes and property ladders.

Comment of this week for me!

Agree John

There were many of us who saw it gong to the basement and stayed put. I watched friends move up the ladder and borrow 100s of thousands for a house that 5 years earlier was 20% of the price, I was so tempted to join the stampede but didn’t.

yeah your great eamon!! anyway…. back to floyds brilliant comment !!!

Are you serious Alan?
Two things will keep falling here – rain and house prices.

Remember if they go down 100% they will be free

They’ll fall until they’re well minus 2007 prices. The need to reach late 1990s prices at least. Put up a blocks apartments 45,000 a pop and you’ll soon see movement. We’re going to reach those prices eventually. Some of these apartments are sitting empty for 5 years now.

its a good time to expand your farm land but stay away from urban areas for another 4 years

@ eamonn. 1990′s prices hey. Are u yaking the piss. They were way undervalued then and wages were about one eight of what they are now so either you don’t know what your talking about or your your just scaremongering. So Alan whether or not it is a good time to buy or not depends a lot on your individual circumstances. How much u are paying in rent, etc.

@peter farmland is way more expensive than houses comparatively. How would you get the 6 to 8 grand an acre back from farmland. Rental yield of less than 2%

Because land itself is an asset euros aren’t…

@peter how are euros not an asset. i always learnt that they are. what else do you recommend buying land with

Some ‘I’m-all-right-Jack-in-the-boxes’ should get perspective – a bit of compassion wouldn’t go astray either.

.Lukasz has a point.
As an architect and at the request of purchasers solicitors I inspected and reported on many new houses that people were interested in buying. I found that many of these houses were structurally unsound, uncompleted, and in breach of regulations. I reported accordingly and guess what? The mortgage was approved and the sale proceeded! These houses are now below even present day valuations and in a lot of cases unsaleable

Banks approving loans 10 times peoples wages on 100% loans on houses they were allowed sucker 1000′s people fearful of never owning there own home in buying houses miles for where they work to say people should known better is a bit much!

Being an architect during the boom was like being a policeman in Limerick!

John have any of the buyers, banks or solicitors involved contacted you with regard to this after signing off? Have any of these cases gone to court?

Niamh
As I have posted many times before on similar threads many building society and bank mortgage applications were incomplete and defective upon closing in the crazy rush to get them sold. In consequence of this many mortgage agreements may be legally unenforceable in the event of application to the courts for repression orders.
People need to get proper legal advise from solicitors other than those that handled their original mortgage dealings with the banks to be properly advised of this.

Sorry didn’t read those… if the houses were incomplete (are you referring to new build) why were you employed by the purchaser? Did the builder/developer not have an architect? Sorry just trying to figure out where you are coming from.

I was employed by the purchasers solicitor as a precautionary measure to ensure that the new house was suitable for purpose and report in that regard. I had no function with regard to the ‘self certification process’ or ‘signing off’ (as you put it) on behalf of the developer/builder, I was not employed by them in this instance. My inspection and report was for the guidance of the purchaser and ultimate it was their choice whether to accept it’s recommendations or not. In many cases they didn’t and hence my point in reply to Lukasz above.

So why were you employed as an architect rather than a surveyor or a structural engineer? Were the houses involved one off houses? What structural issues did you report? Again apologies for the questions…

Many people are confused as to the role of an architect. I suppose it’s a bit like a barrister, you specialize in certain areas – building and contract law, urban or town planning, land or construction surveying, arbitration and court work etc. and of course the aesthetics and design of buildings.
My post graduate training was in the legal, planning law and compliance aspects of construction and I was appointed by solicitors where that advice was required in the event of the conveyance of all types of property. Belt and braces if you like in the crazy world of boom time madness.
Are you involved with stuff like this?

well, just so you you’re aware, there are conditions under which you can rent the property and stay on your tracker. do some research.

Paul not under my contract I got a letter from bank conforming this

why not, you’ve no problem paying banking debts, and they REALLY should have known better.

U’ll be paying a lot of rent while you wait for houses to come back to 1990 levels especially in urban areas. 50 grand is nothing when it comes to a house. Do you have any idea of build and material costs. You could pay 50 grand for a car and dump it after 10 years whereas a house is a lifetime buy

= no market. Totally agree.

Sorry I was wrong, it was April 2010:
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/lenihan-says-house-prices-now-at-bottom-2124724.html

Ah, Inda! You should know well, that it was the glorious Donie Cassidy who called the bottom in April ’08, when he used the Seanad to utter the following from beneath his hairpiece. Donie of course has an extensive property portfolio himself, and in true FF tradition, wasn’t a vested interest at all at all…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RaNqMzVIE0

RUN A FUCKING MILE from a mortgage at the minute, for the foreseeable future.

We’re in no rush to buy because of what is happening, but the time is right for us to buy on a personal note. That does count for something, but my gut is telling me to wait. I think we would buy if the house was perfect. Even now though we were offered more than I’d be comfortable with. We are going into it very wary

Moira,

All I can say to you at this stage is, if you’ve gotten approval then you must be on a fairly sound financial footing, with a deposit of your own of some magnitude. But. Bear in mind that, say €200k, in real terms is about as affordable now as a substantially larger loan would have been a couple of years ago, due to the demise of trackers, thus putting borrowers now at the whim of the banks own variable rates. As I’m sure you know.

Relative to where they were, houses are now cheap, but they may and most likely will, fall even further. Obviously you’re in a place now where you feel the need to buy, but can I say to you, if you’ve gotten approval now, why would you not get approval for a lesser sum down the line?

I personally think prices will fall at least another 20%, if not more-and the only way that a property worth, say €300k now will hold that monetary worth will be on paper, as inflation outstrips the fall in its worth in real terms, and I feel that that inflation is very likely, wherever we end up.

As a property owner myself, I’d advise you to rent. Perhaps you can deal with the present owner, and offer to rent it for a while with an option to buy? I doubt they have people queuing up , and they are guaranteed a return while you sit it out. If you do choose to buy down the line, you’ll have as good a bargaining position as anyone else.

Don’t think that you can buy it now, and move on and up in a couple of years, because the market now would dictate that you will lose money on the deal, as opposed to breaking even.

Whatever you decide, I wish you luck.

Or a builder in Beruit!