This is a comparison between the number of vacant housing units uncovered by last year’s census, compared with the social housing needs of the state on a county-by-county basis, as provided by the Dept. of the Environment.
The excel file of this information is here.
Below is a graph of the ratio of vacant housing to social housing needs:
Jan 23rd, 2012 by Conor McCabe
For more, see here.
Jan 22nd, 2012 by Conor McCabe
So the next time politicians poo-poo the notion of a second bailout, perhaps we can remind them of the politically difficult but beneficial reforms the IMF has effected in this country, not to mention the rock-bottom interest rates charged on the bailout. The reforms however are far from complete, so a second bailout and further oversight from our friends at the IMF, might just be in the interests of the country as a whole.”
You can read more of this nonsense over here on journal.ie
Jan 21st, 2012 by Conor McCabe
I will not yield
I will not fall
I will eat dynamite
and one day I will explode like a volcano
Jan 21st, 2012 by Conor McCabe
Djouce Meadow, Roundwood, Co. Wicklow, is on the Department of the Environment’s list of estates which are exempt from the household charge.
The exemption is because the estate is a category three or category four unfinished estate.
Despite this, despite the official recognition that the estate is at present unfit for purpose, the houses are not only still for sale, but for sale at ten times the median wage.
It’s not even on the market at a knock-down, buyer-beware price.
So, how the hell can we be at the bottom of the housing crash when even houses on estates that the Irish government has officially declared as unfit for purpose are still listed at ten times the median wage?
What a fantasy world the Irish media lives in.
Jan 21st, 2012 by Conor McCabe
Jan 19th, 2012 by Donagh
Some thoughts on this Irish Times article about Merkozy’s designs on our precious corporation tax rate. Admittedly, it raises only superficial points, but still…
The Government is facing a new threat to its corporate tax regime as Germany and France push for the acceleration of moves to create a pan-European business tax system.
It’s not new. It’s the same threat since 2007, four years after the 12.5% tax rate was introduced in 2003. Gilmore claims that German pressure is due to upcoming German and French elections. So where is pressure on Gilmore to keep it coming from? It sure ain’t from the pee-pull.
The renewed clamour for tax co-ordination is set out in a package of measures to stimulate the European economy, which Germany and France want to discuss at two EU summits in the next six weeks.
The two powers, which dominate Europe’s response to the debt crisis, say in a private submission to European Council president Herman Van Rompuy that urgent measures are required to secure economic growth.
These two powers see increasing corporation tax in Ireland as a means of growth, whereas in Ireland our leaders think the opposite.
In a paper seen by The Irish Times , they highlight “tax co-ordination” as being among the policies required to bring this about. These include a quickening of moves to create a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB), an initiative once dismissed by Taoiseach Enda Kenny as tax harmonisation by the “back door”.
The CCCTB would not harmonise tax rates but it would create a pan-European tax system for firms operating in more than one country.
This would limit the ability of firms using subsidiaries which are taxed individually, so as to reduce their tax liability in the country that the parent is based. For example a German company may have a subsidiary in Ireland, which is taxed in Ireland. They also have subsidiaries in other countries, each one of which is taxed in that country or in the case of tax havens not taxed. However, because it is able to use inter-group loans, and get tax relief here on dividends that have already been taxed in a low tax country, its effective tax rate is considerably lower than the much vaunted 12.5%.The subsidiary are usually structured as a ‘Holding Company’.
Jan 19th, 2012 by Conor McCabe
[Photo from Irish Examiner USA]
Marain Finnegan, chief economist with Sherry Fitzgerald, in today’s Irish Times:
Marian Finnegan, chief economist at Sherry FitzGerald, says people who can get a mortgage are in a much better position than people who bought a few years ago. “At the height of the market couples spent 45 per cent of their collective net salary on their mortgage repayments. Now they’re spending 22 per cent, which means it has gotten significantly more affordable to buy than to rent, if you can afford the deposit.”
Ok! Sounds like 2012 is a good time to buy!
But wait, this was Marian Finnegan in the Irish Times on 29 December 2005 (i.e. a few years ago):
All in all, the evidence appears to point in one direction - strong steady demand for the forseeable future. Our young population growth and strong economic performance will mean that demand for homes and the value of those homes will be sustained for many years to come.”
Ok! sounds like 2005 was ALSO a good time to buy!
But wait, this was Marian Finnegan in the Irish Times on 22 January 2010:
Well, at the risk of oversimplifying, the worst appears to be over, provided the Government delivers another responsible and tough budget next December.
Affordability [in the housing market] has been significantly enhanced by the low interest rate environment and falling prices. Our own affordability index shows that many first-time buyers are now paying 50 per cent less of their net income on their new home than they would have done at the height of the market.
Furthermore, in key urban areas, supply is tightening. Listed second-hand stock for sale in Dublin has fallen by more than 60 per cent from its peak in the first half of 2007.
In my view the market is bottoming out. This is not to suggest a remarkable recovery, rather a stabilisation and a return to a property market serving society, rather than society serving the property market. The indications to this effect outlined above are augmented by anecdotal evidence on the ground.
Ireland is well poised for a recovery. We have faced our worst day and taken the necessary corrective action. The days of the Celtic Tiger may be behind us but valuable lessons have been learnt. We can anticipate a more mature, resilient housing market.”
Ok! Sounds like 2010 was ALSO a good time to buy! It being the year when the worst was finally over and all that.
All these good times, and no-one left to buy.
Jan 19th, 2012 by Conor McCabe
I’m working on a paper on NAMA at the moment, but I’ve been so tied up with other stuff that I’m only getting around to reading its 2010 annual report.
It’s incredible stuff.
NAMA actually tells us that a number of the loans transferred in Autumn 2010 have serious title, security and paperwork issues.
But instead of working trough these issues, NAMA, in response to a request from Brian Lenihan, simply took all the loans and gave them an estimated value instead.
This is from the 2010 report, p.12:
In response to a request from the Minister for Finance in late September 2010, we arranged for an accelerated transfer, in the last quarter of 2010, of the residual €38 billion using a bulk transfer mechanism with estimated loan valuations. Much of the delay in completing the due diligence has been due to a delay on the part of participating institutions in submitting loan and property information to us.
The information systems of the institutions are generally well below the standard that might be expected for such large oan portfolios; as a result, the effort required to retrieve information from multiple sources, including numerous IT systems, paper files and the corporate memory of bank staff, has been time-consuming.
This difficulty was compounded by the fact that, over the years, legal work and loan documentation had failed to keep pace with the outflow of lending by banks and due diligence work on title and security that ought to have been carried out years ago is only now, belatedly, being completed some four years later. (p.12)
The legal work on a number of these loans is non-existent. NAMA actually put into its annual report that this is the case.
And yet we’re still paying for them.
At the same time NAMA took from the banks a bloc of derivative contracts. These time-bombs are just sitting there in the offices on Grand Canal Street, patiently waiting to explode.
Even after four years of research, the sheer gall of the Irish moneyed class can still make my jaw drop.
They put into the annual report that a substantial number of the loans they bought were dodgy and that the title on the property securing those loans is practically non-existent.
Man they’re not even trying to cover up the theft that’s going on.
Jan 18th, 2012 by Conor McCabe
