Good time to buy in Dublin?

the_flying_pig

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

...Speaking of which, how's your house hunting going?

I hear you've thrown in the towel and decided to buy.:)

just bought a place actually, & sold me old very small one. needed more space.

i had quite a bit of cash sitting around doing nothing & was really struggling to get an after-tax return on it.

so i've bought, not stretching myself too much, only 35% LTV, a little less than two times joint income, five year fix at 3.59% [i was offered 3.49% but the swines withdrew it at the last minute].

although i need more space i wouldn't have borrowed with a high LTV to buy now, not in London, I'd have rented a bigger place since yields are so low even relative to the current very low interest rates [for which the only way is up obviously], but if you're sitting on cash the equation is quite different - it means that, with flat nominal prices [as a prediction for the short to medium term not a bad starter for ten], it's slightly cheaper to buy than rent [the same isn't true at all for a very highly leveraged buy]. there's obviously a good chance that i'll lose out if prices fall, but my equity buffer is big enough to, well, be able to shrug my shoulders & say 'that's life'.

i did a lot of stress testing on mortgage repayment affordability. i wouldn't have stretched myself at all far assuming low rates for ever but we can afford to absorb some reasonably meaty rises. we're doing a 20 year repayment but i guess could switch to IO if something dreadful happens.

paddyrg

When cash was cheap and fuelled by speculation, building was rampant across the country. There are entire newbuild estates with maybe one or two occupants, or otherwise left without rooves, etc. If you plan to live in the place in Dublin, it's a steal, if an investment you'd better make provision for what happens if the rent stops.

Conrad

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

After a winter of rejected offers, it's now clear that if I want a decent property, in a decent location, it's not really possible to get one on the cheap.... So I'll need to increase my offers.

Owner occupiers round here seem to always be prepared to pay more than investors, so like you I'm resigned to not finding bargains now.

Anyone have a view on a speculative punt. On the Welsh / English border near Knockin I've seen run down farm houses with acres of land under £100k. Looks like there's no grid electric or water. Presumably these can been tens of thousands of £ to get connected to relatively isolated property?

Just seems stageringly low prices. In Monmouth on the other hand loads of such properties were £1m +

buglawton

It's beginning to look really sensible to retire in nearby Europe (not necessarily the resorts). Belgium, Northern France, Western Germany, can be easy to pop back to UK from.

Talking about double or more living space for the same money (compare with S.E. UK), in equally or more attractive locations.

The immigration tide that's pushing up S.E. UK prices ignore the above countries as they want our English-speaking 'global' environment.

Generali

Conrad wrote: »

Owner occupiers round here seem to always be prepared to pay more than investors, so like you I'm resigned to not finding bargains now.

Anyone have a view on a speculative punt. On the Welsh / English border near Knockin I've seen run down farm houses with acres of land under £100k. Looks like there's no grid electric or water. Presumably these can been tens of thousands of £ to get connected to relatively isolated property?

Just seems stageringly low prices. In Monmouth on the other hand loads of such properties were £1m +

If you can earn money from the land it seems very sensible. It's possible to rent grazing out to a local farmer for example.

DYOR of course.

chucknorris

Conrad wrote: »

Owner occupiers round here seem to always be prepared to pay more than investors, so like you I'm resigned to not finding bargains now.

Anyone have a view on a speculative punt. On the Welsh / English border near Knockin I've seen run down farm houses with acres of land under £100k. Looks like there's no grid electric or water. Presumably these can been tens of thousands of £ to get connected to relatively isolated property?

Just seems stageringly low prices. In Monmouth on the other hand loads of such properties were £1m +

The only one that I came across was this one:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33344302.html

Was that the one that you were referring to?

shortchanged_2

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

But look, I'm not going to be goaded into buying the wrong house by some sock puppet on the internet, so this really is a pointless conversation for you.

:rotfl::rotfl:

So I'm a sockpuppet now am I.

chucknorris

shortchanged wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl:

So I'm a sockpuppet now am I.

I too was once a sockpuppet (according to another poster), my wife was devastated, all of sudden she realised that she had married a non existant fictional person, she must have thought that she was living out the charactor from a Phillip K !!!!!! book.

leftieM

nollag2006 wrote: »

With the property market collapse over there, Dublin house prices are down 70% in many parts of the city.

I was looking at Allsops' latest property catalogue for Ireland, and there were some real bargains there.

This tenanted flat, if it sells for the reserve price of €60k, offers a rental yield of 14%:
http://www.auction.co.uk/irish/LotDetails.asp?A=780&MP=24&ID=780000010&S=C&O=A

I wouldn't class that flat as being in Dublin. It's on the border with County Dublin but it's not in the city.

nollag2006

leftieM wrote: »

I wouldn't class that flat as being in Dublin. It's on the border with County Dublin but it's not in the city.

True, it's in Leixlip which is just beyond the pale in County Kildare. (The old family home of Arthur Guinness)

It's very close to the train station, with frequent direct trains to Dublin and near the big Intel plant in the town.

Rents of €7-800 pcm seem to be the norm for a 1 bed in the town:
http://www.daft.ie/searchrental.daft?s%5Bcc_id%5D=c3&s%5Ba_id%5D=257&s%5Bmnp%5D=&s%5Bmxp%5D=&s%5Bmnb%5D=1&s%5Bmxb%5D=1&s%5Bpt_id%5D=&search=1&s%5Bsearch_type%5D=rental&s%5Bfurn%5D=&s%5Brefreshmap%5D=1&search_type=rental

My own view is that I'll probably hold off for a while, but I probably will buy in ireland eventually.

Reasons for holding off:
1) I'd say that Sterling is likely to continue to appreciate against the euro for the next year or so, and Dublin house prices are likely to remain fairly flat
2) The Irish economy is still in an awful mess, with real structural problems. One of the Government parties are real old style socialists, who have no understanding of economics. Dole and civil servant payrates are often more than double those in the UK. A young person gets €188 per week for sitting at home looking at the telly. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_benefits#Ireland). No wonder unemployment is so high
3) There are still significant downside risks of a euro breakup


My wife is from Dublin, and we really love the place. There is a lovely sense of family over there, so we will probably buy something eventually as we spend a lot of time over there. Probably a holiday home on the West coast though, rather than an investment property.

We are moving house later this year, so that should tie up my pennies for a little while too!

:rotfl: