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THIS WEEK THE trend in property prices took a surprising new turn.

According to the CSO, for the first time in almost two years, prices had actually dropped.

The news wasn’t quite as good for businesses looking to rent in the capital however – with reports saying that rents are once again set to rise by 30%.

The Big Movers

Price drop

For the first time since March 2012 property prices across Ireland fell.

The new figures from the Central Statistics Office for last month showed that prices were down 1.4% on what they were in December.

Despite this, property in January was still 15.5% higher than at the same time in 2013. Nationwide prices on houses were seen to have increased by 9.2% while Dublin apartments have gone up by 22.3%.

CSO.ie CSO.ie

Mortgage complaints

New information released this week showed mortgage issues remained the biggest driver of complaints to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

Last year they represented 28% of all complaints made to the body. In total the Ombudsman received 4,477 complaints in 2014, with 1,254 complaints relating to mortgages.

Speaking about the number of mortgage complaints received by the body, Ombudsman Bill Prasifka said that they, “remain a concern and more work remains to be done”.

Dublin office rents 

New predictions released this week show Dublin office rents are set to jump again this year and next. Property group HWBC has based this on growing demand and the fact that no new offices have been built in capital in the last five years.

The new report by the body found that Dublin constructed only about a quarter of the amount of office space that it needed to in 2014. This has led to a supply gap that is expected to continue into next year.

Parking spaces were also shown to be at a premium, with an average rental yield of €1,500.

Under construction

• Senator Thomas Byrne claimed this week that the courts are unable to deal with the number of repossessions coming before them.   
• This week 130 houses in a ghost estate went on sale in England with the pricetag of €1.36 for entire lot. This is on condition the buyer does them up and looks after them. 

• A Dublin woman who won €1 million in the National Lottery has stated her plans to get Dermot Bannonto do up her home.
• With construction beginning to pick up again, the new ESRI report has shown that death rates among male manual workers were 140% higher than professional groups during the 2000s.
• On Tuesday it was announced that Liffey Valley shopping centre was set to get a Penneys, in an expansion set to cost €26 million. 

Des Res

This week Business Insider ran a list of the forty best new property developments in the world. These were the finalists in annual MIPIM awards. Nominations across ten categories and will be decided upon next month. Here are just a few of them: