Not for me. Cause I couldn’t afford it.

Another plus of renting over buying in this market is being stuck with neighbours from hell. If you rent you can move on but you may still take a financial hit with further price drops drops if you need to move.

There’s no point in trying to predict the future or play the market.
If you can afford it and you want a house then go for it.
If you can not afford it or your job is not certainly safe, then don’t go for it.
Simples

great time to buy a home…….can i pay with Monopoly money

@Gareth — Have to disagree with the mindset behind “Paying rent to a landlord certainly wont gain you much value.” The value is having somewhere to call home without the costs of a mortgage, maintenance overheads, etc.

There’s ups and downs to both renting and owning. There’s different types of costs, freedoms and restrictions to both.

Re the problems of renting. A lot of law changes have happened, more are due to happen and further improvements can follow as/if needed. There has been a huge rise the amount of people renting just between the last census last year and 2006 — it’s no longer just a small amount of people renting, so renters should have the ear of policy markers more and more.

It’s by far not a one-size fits all. Renting won’t suit everybody.

Property tax looming!!
Plus other household charges..
Why would you .

Having struggled all my life to ”own ” my own home ,I do not believe that I would encourage my kids to buy a house, No way. It was always my dream. Now on the other hand it may be important to strive to own your own too , and prevent the absentee land lord scenario, and I am not talking about the single house land lord . I mean the large business corporation landlords, absentee land lords / overlords. A rock and a hard place !

I’m a first time buyer moving into my new house the end of the month. While some prices are high if you know what your doing you can get a great deal. My mortgage is going to be €378 a month. Compare that to my partners house her mortgage is €750 and were going to rent that out for €850.

Are you joking us? Buy a house when there could be a 1000 euro tax next year based on valuation. Sher everyone is going to devalue their house in that case and be reluctant to buy with a tax that nobody knows the full story with. Well done current Government for destroying the housing market even further.

It”s too hard to get a mortgage. People that can easily afford them are being turned down.

I wouldn’t even chance buying a bloody ‘Wendy-House’ in the current climate.
Actually…that’s about as much as you would probably get a mortgage for!

The headline in the indo is absolute rubbish today, sure what would you expect from that rag.

No, from houses costing approx 50k in 2000 and within 7-8 years costing 300k I think there is a long way to go yet for the market to correct itself and level out,
I remember in my leaving cert year in 2000 a new estate was built in my home town and they were selling for 44k new, in 2003, the first house sold for 148k – and up the prices went from there. Madness

Pity is wasn’t 10 years older :P

To anybody who bought in the last 5-8 years it’s a good time, i would have my mortgage paid in 10 years if I’d waited till now to buy, really stuck here now with not much prospects, also cheers Martin Cullen e voting almost €160 million = household charge?!!

Depends… I wouldn’t buy anything built in the last 20 years. But an older house solidly built, in an area I want to live in? … Value there alright.

house prices are expensive if you want to live in city or anyway near, if you are willing to commute to work then there are great bargains to be had, I am lucky in that I have only 5 years left and I will finally own my home, (all through the boom we saved our money, no new cars no foreign holiday etc, we both took out the ssia and used this money to pay off mortgage) so now we will be mortgage free by our mid 40s and proud. But if I knew then what I know now, I wouldnt have bothered and I say to all thinking about it, while we have a government who want to punish home owners for daring to buy a house, dont buy, the best thing you can do is rent, it sickens me that after all this hard work and I am so near the end (when I should be reaping the rewards) my money will now be going on property tax and any other bloody tax that those morons in power can and will come up with (i didnt vote for them so my mind is clear). I think I should sell, go on council waiting list and get everything for nothing, that is what this country seems to reward, paying you own way only gets you shafted time and time again. SO, no dont buy, rent, get council house etc, you will be better off at least until Fine Gael leave and disappear forever.

Guarantee you one house in shursburuy road went up 10,000 and the media tags all over it front page of papers today, while ignoring the bare facts of the truth that the cso stats said house prices dropped more in Dublin lady month more than any, but daft.ie who are owed by the property section get this exposure! Unbelievable how this bs is allowed happen!

No, but it might be a good time to stock up on nonperishable food items.

Complete lies and BS property is still vastly over priced in this country. Sindo paper today saying house prices on the up front page, yet unemployment is down,country has years of debt ahead, business closing down every day, immigration, more taxes, more home taxes, cost of living still going up, wages going down, another recession on the way. Yet amazingly for the vested interested media who own daft.ie and myhome house prices going up. Pure lies and deceit. Any one with half a brain will not fall for this spin garbage

Only thing that would make people start buying is a one-year moratorium on stamp duty for all home purchases. That way, sellers would have an incentive to trade up, buyers would have an incentive to buy now quick.

Mind you, it’s odd that the *buyer* should have to pay the tax, rather than the person who’s making the profit.

houses are still overpriced compared to other countries and compared to the cost of building them. they need to drop another 40% or so

The Govt have made a complete and total balls of the property owning situation. They fail to distinguish the difference between investment property and personal home ownership. The first may be taxable the second never should. The fall in property prices is due to oversupply in the market. This won’t go away until home owners can borrow a reasonable sum to purchase their home. At present mortgages are unobtainable even for those who can afford them. The household charge is an additional insult added to the injury already inflicted on homeowners by our own bloody useless government and its crass, stupid ministers on their fat salaries, bad cess to them.

Yes.

But in real economy.

Not Ireland.

Buying is dead money – seriously, a certain chunk of it is. There is still a way to go until it bottoms out yet – and more than you would otherwise hand out in rent in the interim.

I always think that buying a house in Ireland is real silly. This is the only country I know where you rent a house and get EVERYTHING and if something broke you call your landlord and he has to replace it (if YOU didnt mess and if you dont have the horrible landlord I HAVE) – if you have a house you pay all by yourself and it is a barrel without bottom (as we say in german ;-) ). I would never buy a house (only if i got it as a present i guess lol) . And then you have a mortgage and commit yourself for 30plus years??? How silly – FOR ME – you never know whats around the corner tomorrow…. and the ones who can afford the huge mansions LET them pay the household charge… MY opinion they are getting richer and richer anyway. Well if you haven nothing you loose nothing – my life motto ;-)

Ownership is a false economy, interest rates are keeping it all relative.

Mind you the way rent prices are it’s an easy decision if you want to settle. If not keep renting end of.

Don’t get sucked into the hype.

Why would anyone buy while prices are still dropping? After all we know? Are there really that many morons still out there?

P.

I think it’s a good time to buy a house. Yes, the value may come down but houses are still great value compared to recently. However if I was given a second chance at this life I would never buy in Ireland and get to Australia or the USA.

Is now a good time to sell advertorial to estate agents? Probably

And are prices in Ireland above those elsewhere? I don’t think so! A nice two-bed apartment in Amsterdam can run you €300k. London is about to have a catastrophic price crash in apartments as new laws come in intended to stop international criminals and tax fugitives hiding money in London property.

It could be a good investment to purchase now whilst there cheap. 20 or 30 years down the road then it could end up being a handy retirement fund!!

Good time if yer a cash buyer, apparently…

You can absolutely make money on a depreciating house if the interest cost and the yearly depreciation are greater than yearly rent. For example if you buy a 100k house that falls say 5% in value at 3% interest… You would loose 8k But if you were to rent the same house at 1k a month you would be 4k+ better off at the year end…

Those calling buyers morons are just short sighted… Or mathematically challenged